The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg RailroadHungerford, Edward
History
The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg Railroad
Hungerford, Edward
Railroads -- New York (State) -- History; Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad Company
On this sheet, the chief northbound train, No. 7, Express and Mail, left
Rome at four o'clock each afternoon, reaching Watertown at 7:05 p. m., and
leaving there twenty minutes later, arrived at Ogdensburgh at 10:30 p. m.
The return movement of this train, was as No. 2, leaving Ogdensburgh at
4:25 o'clock in the morning, passing Watertown at 7:10 o'clock and
reaching Rome at 10:35 a. m. In addition to this double movement each day,
there was a similar one of accommodation trains; No. 1, leaving Rome at
2:35 o'clock each morning, arriving and leaving Watertown at 6:20 and 6:40
a. m., respectively, and reaching Ogdensburgh at 10:10 a. m. As No. 8, the
accommodation returned, leaving Ogdensburgh at 4:30 p. m., passing
Watertown at 8:20 p. m., and arriving at Rome at 12:20 a. m. Apparently
folk who traveled in those days cared little about inconvenient hours of
arrival or departure.
There were connecting trains upon both the Cape Vincent and the Potsdam
Junction branches--the branch from Richland to Oswego was just under
construction--and a scheduled freight train over the entire line each day.
Yet there, still, was an almost entire absence of mid-day passenger
service.
Gradually this condition of things must have improved; for in Hamilton
Child's _Jefferson County Gazetteer and Business Directory_, for 1866, I
find the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh advertising three fast passenger
trains a day in each direction over the entire main line, in addition to
connections, not only for Cape Vincent and for Potsdam Junction, but also
over the new branch from Richland through Pulaski to Oswego. Pulaski,
humiliated in the beginning by the refusal of the Watertown & Rome to lay
its rails within four miles of that county-seat village, finally had
received the direct rail connection, that she had so long coveted.
In that same advertisement there first appears announcement of through
sleeping-cars, between Watertown and New York, an arrangement which
continued for a number of years thereafter, then was abandoned for many
years, but, under the bitter protests of the citizens of Watertown and
other Northern New York communities, was finally restored in 1891 as an
all-the-year service.
Upon the ancient time table of 1863 there appear the names of the old
stations, the most of which have come down unchanged until to-day. One of
them has disappeared both in name and existence, Centreville, two miles
south of Richland, while the adjacent station of Albion long since became
Altmar. Potsdam Junction we have already seen as Norwood, while nice
dignified old Sanford's Corners long since suffered the unspeakable insult
of being renamed, by some latter-day railroad official, Calcium. A similar
indignity at that time was heaped upon Adams Centre, being known
officially for a time as Edison!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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