Does anyone know any more legendary heroes such as John Henry?
I’d like to hear about some more american RR heroes, and perhapse songs that were written about them…
So if someone can think of any, let me know
Casey Jones of course!
I know about Casey Jones too, forgot to mention in my first post
Steve Brodie,engineer on the Old 97.
Eddie Sand
Old Timer
Kate Shelley, a gutsy teenage heroine.
Not exactly on subject, but I my buddy who works for Sperry Rail Service was just testing the tracks the other day past the closed Casey Jones museum in the Depot in Vaughn, Mississippi. I hope the place doesn’t just fall down.
can someone please tell me the story of john henry
He out drove a spike driving machine.
My Number One Hero is David Moffat, builder of the Denver and Salt Lake City, who did not live to see “his” tunnel built, and whose story is in “Giants Ladder”, a great book. Also Otto Miers, George Gibbs, Stillwell, Hirshfield (the engineer of the PCC car), Slaughter Huff (The Third Avenue Transit boss who tried to buck LaGuardia to continue New York City streetcars), Ralph Budd, the two Claytor borthers, William Jackson Palmer, Bowman Elder, Edward Dana, Ed Tennyson (living), Leonard Bernstein (living), as well my good friend William B. Vigrass and of course David Gunn.
In the very distant past, Geroge Stephenson, Issambard Kingdom Bullard? (not sure of the name of Stephenson’s great rival and close friend). And of course Peter Cooper for his Tom Thumb, and his later work as locomotive superintendent for the New York and Harlem.
Ernie Bloss, boss and friend and well coverd the Kalmbach DIESEL VICTORY
and his friend and mine, Bill Goodwin, passenger VP of the New Haven.
William Randolf? (Have I got the name right?) The founder of the Pullman Porters’ Union
I think you mean Isambard Kingdom Brunel - I’m not sure he was really a rival to Stephenson except for the matter of gauges though. Stephenson adopted the 4ft 8 and a half while Brunel favoured 7ft “broad gauge” - this was undoubtedly more stable at speed but given everyone else was using standard gauge it meant a lot of costly transhipment at interchanges. I agree he was a railway legend though - he came second only to Winston Churchill in a “Greatest Britons” poll last year, and would probably have won were it not for the order in which the programmes trying to persuade people to vote were shown!
Brunel always seems to get a better press than his contemporaries, and perhaps that was due in no small measure to the Great Western Railway’s skill at spin.
While it may be churli***o point out the faults of a person much cleverer than I could ever hope to be, he did have a tendency to **** things up (see the Chpater in Adrian Vaughan’s new book, Railway Blunders), and those **** ups are rarely mentioned in any books other than those for the serious reader.
John Henry was a driller, he worked tunnels and rock cuts and out drilled a steam drill. He died for his efforts. Gives credence to the saying that one machine can replace dozens of ordinary men but many machines cannot replace one extraordinary man .
Randy
Legend of John Henry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore)
Casey Jones
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones
Engineer Jesus Garcia gave his life to save the city of Nacozari,Mexico from an explosion.A box car of dynamite was on fire and he used his locomotive to get the car out of town before it went off. There are more such stories in the old Railroad Magazine.
now that’s one fine man
Kate Shelley was a 15 year old who, on the night of 6 July 1881, saw an engine
and crew cra***hrough the storm weakened Honey Creek bridge of the C&NW railroad. She knew that the midnight special with 300 plus people was due through in a few hours and she also knew that no one was aware of the collapsed bridge. She took her lantern and headed for Moingona. The distance was about 1.5 miles
but between her and that flagstop was the open deck Des Moines river bridge. She had to crawl across its rain slicked ties in the dark with the rain pounding down
and with the river itself at flood. At one point in her crossing she was almost pulled from the bridge by a floating snag. She herself was torn and bleeding from the ties and the tie plates. Since she didn’t know the exact time she had to worry about the possibility of the special charging out of the darkness and killing her on the bridge.
She made it to Moingona literally just in the nick of time, the station agent got out his red lantern and flagged down the train and the next morning Kate awoke to find she was a heroine.
The Chicago Tribune launched a fund drive in her honor and with the money they raised they paid off the mortgage on her mothers farm and she herself was given a full scholarship to Simpson College. She later went to work for the C&NW as a station agent. When the C&NW put a brand new span across the Des Moines river many years later it was named the Kate Shelley bridge and it stands and is in daily use today.
There were several poems written about her and there is also a song. I don’t know the name of the song and of the poems probably the one by Cantor is the best. In it’s full length it is a bit condescending but it does have some great word imagery.
(The full original text along with a longer account of Kate herself, can be found on pp.134-144 of Hubbard’s book Railroad Avenue.)
The Abridged Version of The Ballad of Kate
Bert Hooker
One of the best locomen on Britsih Rail
A must read is his book ‘Nine Elms Engineman’ where he describes his railway service and how he was a fireman during the 1948 interchange trials.(these were to test the relative merits of the then natioalised railway companies engines) Hieand his Driver jack Swain drove their engine from London to Inverness,
Paddy McEvoy-the first engineer to bring a train through the Cascade Tunnel and into Seattle in 1893. He is not exactly famous but he should be!
The CNW for years ran the Kate Shelly 400 streamliner between Chicago and Clinton, IA.
Mark