

Figure 63. — Roadbed of abandoned Portage Railroad. 

 Note the closely spaced granite blocks. From an original 

 photograph in division of transportation, Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. 



English engines working on the road in the fall of 

 1834. 19? Floating the boat sections from their trucks 

 into the canal basin at Columbia, bringing them 

 together and uniting them into full canal boats, was 

 always a sight of great interest to travelers, as was 

 also their transfer to trucks at Hollidaysburg. 



For the traveling community the small coaches or 

 cars seating from 20 to 26 passengers were a great 

 improvement for comfort over the old stage coach, 

 though destructive to the proverbial stage coach con- 

 viviality; but this was in a measure made up on the 

 canal boat portion of the routes, where passengers 

 were at ease with full liberty to walk about or lounge 



197 His memory apparently was at fault. The chronology is 

 given in note 186, above. However, a Norris locomotive, the 

 Green Hawk, built in 1832. was the first locomotive on the road; 

 and the Black Hawk was in successful operation before Baldwin's 

 Lancaster was completed. See Watkins (cited in note 177. 

 above), vol. 1, pp. 114. 120; also, see note 205 below. 



as they liked; groups were formed, games indulged in, 

 and not unfrequently rival races on the tow path. 



As to the passenger canal boats they were a marvel 

 of ingenuity in their arrangement for accommodation 

 and comfort of the traveler; they might be termed the 

 forerunners of the Pullman sleeper and dining car. 

 Much was concentrated within their hulls and minia- 

 ture cabin; comfortable, broad omnibus seats along 

 the sides, with space between for camp stools, without 

 greatly interfering with the passage; a long dining 

 table was set, and fair meals furnished at reasonable 

 rates for way passengers, those for the through pas- 

 sengers being included in the fare. At night rows of 

 berths one above another along the sides of the cabin 

 were arranged, a curtain separating the ladies' from 

 the gentlemen's cabin, and all were intended to be 

 and supposed to be made comfortable, and, barring 

 mosquitoes at certain seasons, no one had a right to 

 complain, as all these comforts were furnished without 

 extra charge. 



157 



