— 





*5t ///, ■ . , . ' /a am s s?r/s 



Figure 62. — Grade crossing on Philadelphia and Columbia 

 Railroad. Two longitudinal bearing timbers, of locust, were 

 bedded in broken stone. Locust crossties carried chairs for 

 "Clarence" rails. White oak "guard rails" were shoed with 

 flat iron bars % inch thick and 2^ inches wide. The estimated 

 cost of this crossing, excluding the cost of rails and chairs, was 

 $60.30. From manuscript record book of W. H. Wilson, 

 preserved in Pennsylvania Railroad Library. About 60 pages 

 of the record book are devoted to the Philadelphia and Colum- 

 bia Railroad and an equal number to the Philadelphia and 

 Reading; there are many illustrations of bridges, tunnels, 

 track, and switches. 



The next expedient to save the expense and delays 

 of breaking bulk and handling freight, was making 

 canal boats in sections. This ingenious device an- 

 swered a good purpose, notwithstanding the increased 

 dead weight of the permanent cabins and water- 

 soaked hulls, over the movable box-car that had to be 

 hauled over the portage. At first they had to contend 

 with great opposition and prejudice on the part of 

 shippers of fine goods. Much was said at the time 

 about damage caused by leakage of the square trun- 

 cated ends of the boat sections in consequence of 

 racking and drying [of] the cars and opening of the 

 caulked seams. This was, no doubt, greatly magnified 

 by competing transportation firms. Any one who will 

 take the trouble to look over the advertisements in 

 files of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh papers, say from 



156 



1835, can form some idea of the rivalry between the 

 different transportation firms or companies. 



The boat sections for freight going west were loaded 

 in Philadelphia warehouses, hauled by horse-power 

 to the foot of the Peters Island incline; from the head 

 of the plane they were mostly taken by locomotives 

 to Columbia, for at the date of their advent locomo- 

 tives had nearly if not quite supplanted horses on the 

 Columbia or State road. 



In the published history of the Baldwin Locomotive 

 works from 1831 to 1881 they give the date of the 

 completion of their first engine for the State road as 

 June 1834; it was fully a year before this that the 

 Long & Norris engine was tried on that road, and if 

 my recollection is not entirely at fault there were 

 two Norris engines and two or three imported 



