The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and AppliancesClarke, Thomas Curtis
History
The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and Appliances
Clarke, Thomas Curtis
Railroads -- United States
The run to Chicago for post-office purposes is divided into three
divisions: from New York to Syracuse, from Syracuse to Cleveland,
and from Cleveland to Chicago. Each division has its own crew, so
that the men leaving New York are relieved at Syracuse by others,
and these in turn at Cleveland. The New York crew go to work, as
has been said, at 4 P.M., and if the train is on time at Syracuse,
as it usually is, they arrive there at 5.35 A.M., after thirteen
and a half hours of as hard work as men are called upon to do. The
same evening at 8.40 they relieve the east-bound crew, and are in
New York again at six o'clock on the following morning. Half an
hour later they are to be found on the top floor of the General
Post-Office building, comfortably ensconced in bunks and in a
large and airy room, provided as a dormitory for their use by the
postmaster of New York at the time of the inauguration of the fast
mail service. Each crew makes three round trips and is then laid
off for six days, but its members are all this time subject to
extra duty, which they are called upon to perform with unpleasant
frequency, particularly in holiday times.
After leaving New York, the first stop the train makes is at
Poughkeepsie, but no mail is taken on there. At Albany the second
halt is made, and there twenty minutes are spent in taking on
the mail from New England and northeastern New York. At Palatine
Bridge there is a brief stop, and after that comes Utica, where
the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Ontario & Western, and
the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg roads exchange mail matter. At
Syracuse more mails come, this time from the Oswego, Binghamton
& Syracuse, and the Auburn & Rochester branch of the New York
Central. Here also comes welcome relief for the crew which left
New York. Those who follow have much to keep them busy, but the
heaviest part of the work has been already performed.
From Syracuse to Cleveland there are several distributing points
where mail matter is also received on the train, and the routine is
continued much as already described until the crew is relieved at
Cleveland. There the men of the Western Division take charge and
continue the work until Elkhart, Ind., is reached. There a special
force from Chicago meets the train, takes possession of a portion
of the letter car, and makes the distribution for the main office
and stations of the city of Chicago, thus saving much time. When
the train arrives in Chicago, it makes connection with a fast mail
train on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, as also on a like train
on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. The former train arrives at
Council Bluffs about 7 P.M., and there overtakes the train which
left Chicago on the previous evening. The Pacific Coast mail is
thus expedited just twenty-four hours. A similar train on the St.
Paul road also saves twenty-four hours' time on the trip to the
northwestern portion of the Pacific Coast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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