Large Scale Central

Before headlights

Prototypes
#1

Recently I have been reading a couple of train books I received for Christmas and I came across an interesting paragraph that involved a early time on the Railroads before they had headlights. I should have marked the page since I can’t find it now but it read something like this.

In the early days of Railroading trains woldn’t be run at night because the engineer couldn’t see down the tracks. In the South a RR tried a novel approach. They took 2 flat cars placed them in front of the engine and spread sand all over the flatcars. They then piled wood at the front of the first one and set it on fire. They also had a large piece of metal that somewhat reflected the flames so the crew could see down the tracks and where they were going.

Sounds crazy but it did work. Even crazier would be if someone has tried this on their layout.

fess up if you have heard of this or even tried it.

Todd

#2

Todd,

I remember reading something like that years ago. I think the metal plate was more of a shield so the engineer/fireman didn’t have to look directly into the flames, thus impairing their vision.

It sounds crazy to us but is it any crazier than a requirement of early automobile travel?

When approaching a cross road the driver had to stop, get out, proceed on foot to the center of the intersection and ring a bell then fire a gun. After returning to his car he then could proceed through the intersection.

Rick

#3

Rick, they still do that today…Though they skip the bell. It’s called a ‘drive-by’.

:smiley:

#4

that’s damn funny!

#5

Yeah that is funny.

I think you are right about the shield Rick.

I want hear about someone trying this out on their RR.

#6

Even stranger to me was a tidbit told to me by an old friend, Harry, now departed, about driving in the twenties. His family was well to do and during that time frame he said no one slowed down for intersections, You just drove on through. He totaled his dad’s car(s) twice, once when he ran into a dump truck and another time when he hit a streetcar.

Also if you could outrun a traffic cop, they were usually on motorcycles, you were home free. They’d always head for a gravel road because the motorcycle couldn’t keep good control on gravel at high speed. It did backfire on him one time though when doing about 50mph in his heavy car (dad’s car again) Harry came to a 90 degree turn, turned the wheel and kept going straight ahead, through a fence and into a farmer’s field. Not only was he caught but his dad had to pay for the fence plus loss to the farmer’s crops. Harry said it was amazing how expensive those crops became when run over by a car.

At 23 Harry had never held a job being a college student and by his own admission a general ne’re do well at the speakeasies. He came home one night quite late to find the front door locked and his suitcase on the porch. He knocked on the door to find out what was up and his dad told him it was time for him to go out into the world on his own, wished him luck and closed the door. Harry said that he was absolutely broke and if his mother hadn’t of sneaked him $20 he would have slept in the streets that night. hehe! Life in the good old days. No welfare then although perhaps the Salvation Army would have taken him in.

Harry was a great guy and was good to a young fellow as I was when I knew him. I’ve missed him and a couple of other old timers I knew from that era long ago.

#7

'Nother early car story:

The county where my wife grew up was Derry, in Northern Ireland. Farmland fifty miles in every direction. Dirt roads. My wife’s Dad was a fairly prosperous and enterprising guy, and he bought the first car in the county. After a couple of months another fellow bought one, so then there were two. As far as these guys knew, there were no rules of the road back then. They didn’t have a clue about driving on one side or the other, so naturally one day they met at an intersection and while trying to avoid one another they promptly crashed into each other. It gets funny when you consider the number of cars in that huge district, and both of them smashing up in the same incident.

#8

" they met at an intersection and while trying to avoid one another they promptly crashed into each other."

That still happens today every day in every city in every state in Russia.

(http://www.ideashelper.com/images/loco3.gif)

#9

That’s like the story of the first two cars in Kansas (my grandfather was born and educated in Kansas, and says that he was there when it happened), one in Kansas City in the east, and the other in Dodge City in the west.

They collided in Wichita, in the center.

Of course, my grandfather was a great raconteur. He could keep me spellbound for hours.