I recall a book I had about such a dog, but I can’t for the life of me remember anything else.
Owney the postal dog
I JUST found him on Wikipedia and was about to post his name (Owney, the Postal Dog)–but you beat me to it by one minute!
Quite a dog.
Might’ve been Owney that I was thinking of. I can’t recall, though.
There are multiple other stories of Railroad dogs, many of them are about dogs who would accompany their master to the depot when they went to work on the Railroad in the morning, the owner would die out on the line in an accident, and for the rest of the dogs life it would go to the depot and wait for its master in the afternoon. That’s probably worth another thread, talking about Railroad dogs.
I’m sure–that’d be an interesting thread.
Well, let’s make this a more interesting thread by involving dogs.
It seems the Long Island Railroad has two dog stories I know of, and I learned today both stories seem to involve a dog of the same name. So we’ll have to take the Roosevelt anecdote with a grain of salt, although we’re free to believe what we like.
"That is the same legendary dog, Roxey (also spelled Roxy), whose story often intertwines with Jamaica Station.
- The Legend: Roxey was a terrier-pitbull mix who began riding the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) around 1901 after a “mysterious mix-up” separated him from his original owner.
- The Jamaica Connection: He was famous for his weekly routine; every Thursday, he reportedly took the train to Montauk for a seafood dinner and spent that night at the Jamaica Station with the station master. He was known to navigate complex connections across various branches with better precision than many passengers.
- The Burial: When his health failed in 1914, he passed away at a veterinary facility in Jamaica. At the request of his close friend, Merrick resident Elsie Hess, the LIRR President allowed him to be buried on railroad property.
- The Grave: You can still find his headstone and a built-in water bowl today at the Merrick LIRR Station. It is located south of the station building near Sunrise Highway.
In 2023, he was further honored with a 20-foot bronze statue at the Mineola Station, alongside early aviator Bessica Raiche."
And this:
"The story features Roxey, a legendary stray who became the official mascot of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR).
According to the tale:
- The Intrusion: Roxey, who had a special pass to ride any train, wandered into Theodore Roosevelt’s private car during one of the President’s trips home to Sagamore Hill.
- The Bed Standoff: He was discovered lying on the President’s bed. When a porter tried to remove him, the dog refused to budge.
- Roosevelt’s Reaction: Upon hearing about the famous dog, Roosevelt famously let him stay, remarking on his importance and riding with him all the way to Oyster Bay.
Roxey was so beloved that he even had his own bank account at the Corn Exchange Bank to pay for his meals and vet bills. He died in 1914 and is memorialized with a headstone at the Merrick LIRR station."
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One last dog story before getting back to the films. I can’t remember where I read this, probably in the Missouri Pacific historical Society magazine. But someone was shipping a pedigreed dog by train in a kennel in the baggage car. In the middle of the night, there were instructions to walk the dog at a station stop. The baggage man somehow allowed the dog to escape and couldn’t catch him, and the dog disappeared somewhere into the town.. the guy didn’t know what to do, so he caught some stray mutt and stuck him in the kennel to finish the shipment. The outcome of this incident, I cannot recall, but it certainly was not very pretty. 
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Historic railroad film, film 5
This particular film is from 1928, very early sound production again. As always, there’s a gold mine of historic railroad details to see and marvel at.
The first thing seen is the underside of a 2-8-2 turned over on the engineer’s side. Locomotive wrecks always seem to allow us a view of normally unseen detail, and in this case we get a very rare look at the underside of of a steam engine, of course extremely different from the underside of a model locomotive. In the background we see part of a work train, which includes a very old at that time 36 foot wood box car with arch bar trucks converted to a camp car, very much the kind of car that Roundhouse offered as an HO scale kit for many years.
We also seen in the background,as we will see throughout this film, large crowds of well-behaved and well-dressed onlookers behind minimal barricades. This was an age when there was virtually no media entertainment other than early radio and movie houses, so events like this were a major form of public entertainment, crowds always turned out to see wrecks like this.
The next clips focus on the scene behind the overturned locomotive. Several steam powered 250 ton cranes are working to clear the wreck from the main line. If you look closely at one of the wrecked box cars, you can see the old-fashioned Union Pacific Overland herald. The pole line so typical of major rail lines everywhere at that time parallels the track., 10 wires on each cross arm and six cross arms means 60 wires or 30 circuits.
A passenger train pulled by a Camelback 10 wheeler eases up and past, going slowly through the wreck site. Attempts to read the road name on this tender were futile but later on in the film, you can barely make out “Reading” on another tender. The coarse five chime whistle squalls as it passes. Dozens of workers swarm all over the tracks among splintered wood, it takes a second for one to realize that it all used to be wooden freight cars completely destroyed in the collision. Another passenger train pulled by Camelback passes slowly, seen through a maze of a multitude of open wires on the pole line. A massive crowd looks on behind the barricade. Police type whistles sound frequently in the background, it’s unknown if it was a signal to the work crew or to keep the crowd back.
The next clip supposedly is focused on a damaged coach, but more interesting in the background is a brick roundhouse with the door closed against what is obviously the winter air. A few scenes follow of crowds milling around on the track.
Then, another passenger train appears, this one pulled by a Pacific with the cab back behind the Wooten fire box. The cab barely gets squeezed behind the firebox, part of the front bottom had to be trimmed off to make it fit. Like the Camelback before, the safety pops are lifting. With all of the superintendents certainly around the wreck, it seems odd, because typically when a superintendent would see the pops lifting, the fireman would often be disciplined or terminated for wasting money on wasted steam. In this case, it’s likely that the fireman was asked to do it for the benefit of the film. The whistle screams, this time a readily identifiable Reading 6-chime. The tender passes, this time with “Reading” clearly visible on the sides.
The scene then switches to the other side of the right of way for different view of the wreck. The narrator says it is a Central of New Jersey wreck, odd when all of the locomotives so far appeared to have been Reading engines. It’s possibly a trackage rights location, someone knowledgeable about Northeastern railroading might be able to detail this better. A close-up shows us an incredibly ornate old open platform wood coach, part of the work train at that date, but today would be a valuable museum piece. There’s a very revealing, very quick glimpse that might escape the casual viewer, of one freight car that survived the wreck better, a boxcar with a then very modern corrugated steel end that didn’t telescope and splinter like the older wood cars did.
Nearly to the end of the film, a sweeping view more clearly shows the seven stall brick roundhouse with all of its doors closed against the cold. Panning further, a very modern for that day 50 foot steel boxcar is seen that survived the wreck much better than the wooden cars, even though it has a large gouge in the side. The Railroad name is almost visible, Central of Something.
Maybe Central of Georgia RR on the boxcar described in your last sentence? It was the only RR I could think of that start with “Central of…”
Can’t see for sure what it is. Could be central of New Jersey.
I’ll get in briefly before Wayne comments more extensively. But one second into the clip you know that’s a CNJ 2-8-2 by the distinctive firebox. Then the passenger locomotives are distinctive 4-6-0 Camelbacks – someone with a larger screen might be able to read the front numberplate. Wreck train has a Camelback, too.
I’m more interested in who can recognize the location.
Thanks. I appreciate the input. I can comment in general on these films, but northeastern railroading is way outside of my experience and knowledge. I would never have recognized a CNJ Mikado like I would have one on the MP or T&NO. Since the mikado is a CNJ engine, and tenders on the other engines are marked as Reading, that is probably some kind of trackage rights place that ought to be fairly easily identified by someone who knows those lines up there. The notes on the film say Dunnelin NJ.
Dunellen (note sp.) would work – ancient modelers may regard that name with a certain reverence.
The CNJ Bound Brook route was the New Jersey end of the B&O’s New York Extension, from the days of McLeod’s Reading Combine and its terrible fallout. The B&O’s name trains to New York operated over the Reading and CNJ to the terminal that is now part of Liberty State Park.
Spellcheck AAAAGGGHHHHHHH.
I looked up Dunellen on Google maps and saw that it was right near Bound Brook. In 1988 I got on the NRHS excursion at Bound Brook, pulled by the 765, to see the Blue Mountain & Reading, where we rode behind the 425. I wish they would letter that engine for its original road, the Gulf, Mobile and Northern.
Historic railroad film, film 6
Construction of mountain railroad–outtakes
This film has a minimal amount of railroad interest compared to the entire film, but it’s definitely worth watching. It’s in Austria in 1926, and you get to see some Austrian Railroad practice in bridge construction and catenary systems. The one view of a train actually passing is of an electric locomotive with side rods, pulling a freight. But the appeal of the film is mostly great aerial views of the Austrian Alps from a plane that’s flying around in patterns. What is especially great is not railroad material at all, but rather film around a 1926 aerodrome with several vintage airplanes, older biplanes and more modern fixed wing craft that will certainly be interesting to someone on this forum. I’m sure there are people with pilots licenses reading some of this, and one of them might comment on one of the views of a biplane rudder that it looks like it’s about to fall out of the tailfin.
Macon, Dublin, and Savannah railroad–Nixon–home movies
This film is severely underexposed and since it is a home movie, about half of it or more is of a college football game and various related celebrations. But there are some views of some early road switchers and some heavyweight cars around an unnamed passenger terminal.
Pennsylvania Railroad trains–outtakes
This very short film is three heavyweight passenger train runbys with the camera facing the direction of travel of the train . Right before one runby, a freight locomotive is briefly seen on another track, some PRR fan will have to identify it. It will be of interest mostly to Pennsylvania fans, but it’s very clear in this film that passenger travel on the Pennsylvania Railroad was a very serious undertaking, these trains definitely mean business when they’re passing.
Transferring railroad freight cars on floats–outtakes
Most of the railroad activity in this film is within the first half, with nice close-up details of a double sheathed Rock Island boxcar. The film was made in 1920, so the archbar trucks seen in a very nice close-up are still legal in interchange.
The second half of the film shows the barge being moved down a very industrial waterway with several massive steel drawbridges being raised.
Mexican railroad accident–outtakes
Although this film is presented as depicting a collision, only one locomotive is seen, engine 147, which appears to be a pacific, completely overturned on its back down in the ditch. Several wrecked wood boxcars are seen, followed by older wood passenger coaches, all truss rodded, all derailed and heavily damaged. If anyone ever thought that sombreros are a stereotyped Mexican costume, several onlookers wearing them are seen in the crowd looking at the train. The film was made in 1925, so multiple arch bar trucks are seen in the wreckage.
Historic railroad film, film 8
Railroad freight train steam locomotives–outtakes
This film, made in 1929, apparently was made to celebrate the arrival of new 4-8-4 locomotives on the Delaware Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The first three and 1 1/2 minutes of film were taken from atop the full coal pile in the tender, looking forward over the cab roof and down the track. We are treated to a nice long film panorama of the urban industrial Northeast, stated as being Hoboken, New Jersey, at the end of the 1920s, very gritty, smoggy, and rather grim. For someone accustomed to well-tuned five-chime and six-chime whistles of southwestern railroads, the raucous unmelodic steam whistle on this engine is fairly unpleasant to listen to. The soundtrack is supposedly live, but when the whistle blows, no steam is seen emerging from the engine. Perhaps the whistle is mounted in a lower location, someone who knows these engines better will have to comment.
At around 3 1/2 minutes, the view transitions to a camera on a flat car facing backwards, pacing the locomotive at speed just ahead of the engine. We soon see that it is locomotive number 1603. For another four minutes, we are treated to fabulous running at speed down the main line, maybe at 60 miles an hour even, almost always blasting thick smoke that one would think would get the fireman dismissed , but that would completely delight every steam locomotive rail fan.
Around 7 1/2 minutes, the camera moves to the ground, right on the ground actually, very close to the track as the engine charges towards it. Several runbys are made, the last couple with the cylinder cocks open, which adds to the drama. Unfortunately, some insensitive person at the film archive added a logo onto the film which covers the engine for a lot of its approach. It is believed that this film exists somewhere else on the Internet, to be viewed without that intrusion.
At about 9:20, the film switches to a mid-level railroad brass hat standing under the cab, rattling off all of the vital statistics of the new engine. These being outtakes, the official flubs the lines a couple of times and it is embarrassed by it.
The Erie had a float terminal in the Bronx. It looks like the narrow Harlem River separating Manhattan Island from the Bronx mainland. The river has many draw bridges, one of which looks like it had supports for trolley wires, as there were some that crossed the river.
Oho! you don’t know!
One of the great lost things from the age of steam was the precise sound of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western’s five-chime air horns, made by a local organ builder. (The Lackawanna Hudsons had single-chime air horns like much of the contemporary power, like Niagaras and GS4s, that save steam and have that ‘streamliner’ baritone blat…)
The film depicts an early test of one of the Lackawanna Poconos, among the first true high-speed 4-8-4s that were built… and that sound you hear is the five-chime air horn whose sound was lost, recorded on equipment that more or less accurately gives us the relative pitches of the bells.