Vincent Francis Seyfried

“ Within minutes the news reached Flushing and College Point. An engine was dispatched from College Point and took the passengers in the two undamaged coaches to Bridge Street depot, and from there carriages were hired to deliver the passengers individually to their homes. Wrecking crews worked all that night to lift the smoking car and repair the track, but in vain. The morning light revealed that the draw had been knocked seven feet off center, the castings of the swing so badly broken as to need replacement, and the main center bearing three inches out of line. ”

“ Feeling that the death of Oliver Charlick removed the one great obstacle to a working agreement with the Long Island R.R., President Herman Poppenhusen of the North Side line called on Havemeyer and urged him to increase rates for both passenger and freight to a tariff to be mutually decided upon by the two companies. Havemeyer rejected the proffered olive branch, and Poppenhusen countered with a threat to fight on, not only at Flushing, but at every other point where their roads touched. ”

“ December 26, 1865—Night freight train loses one car, which is left on road in darkness. Next passenger train strikes it at full speed, smashing it and damaging the engine.
When one reflects that the locomotives suffered major damage not only in these publicized accidents but minor damage in numerous smaller mishaps, of which we have no record, plus the exceptionally hard wear inflicted by snow storms such as those of 1856 and 1857, it is no wonder that the engines were largely worn out. ”

“ It was easy to pillory the railroad corporation as a souless monster ruthlessly monopolizing the public streets and crushing out the lives of golden-haired innocents under the wheels of its iron juggernauts. ”

“ When only a few yards from Hillside station, a man was seen running down with some danger signals, and the troops were thrown into a state of the wildest excitement for a few moments, fearing that a collision was inevitable. The engine was stopped and the trackman picked up, who reported that the eastbound had been just about to start from Central Junction siding, when the smoke of the Creedmoor train had been sighted. Had a collision occurred on the meadows, many soldiers as well as regular passengers in coaches and palace cars would have been killed. ”

“ Many who were in favor of the direct route disliked the idea of the railroad making a deep chasm through Flushing east of Main Street where the land was more elevated. It was suggested that nearly everyone would be satisfied if the North Shore road were to run in a cut with properly walled sides, and with Bowne Street and Union Street carried over the cut on bridges. By covering up the cut altogether on the east side of Main Street where the cut began, it would be possible to blot out from view altogether any unsightly railroad operation. ”

“ To placate the opposition, the Southern road had three of the newest and best dummy engines available constructed for its use. To secure even further public support, the railroad at great expense promised to use the much less suitable groove rail for the standard T rail on its Williamsburgh track. Notwithstanding all these gestures of appeasement, the opponents of steam operation continued their agitation to drive the railroad from the streets.
One of the best arguments in their arsenal of weapons against the road was the toll of human life taken by the dummies. ”

“ It was clear that Flushing, if it wanted the benefits of rail connection with the metropolis, would have to finance and build a road of its own. The first impulse toward a rail project arose in the early 1840's and gradually gained momentum as line after line began to be built and successfully operated in and around New York City. The Flushing Journal took up the project as part of its campaign for municipal improvement, and regularly presented to its readers accounts of successful railroad schemes in towns of comparable size and situation. ”

“ Three different railroad stations afforded a convenience never enjoyed before or since. Each road offered twenty or more trains a day each way and at the lowest possible cost. Even the ride itself provided entertainment and excitement, for, because of the nearness of the two parallel rights-of-way, the engineers of the rival trains raced each other all the way into Long Island City, flaunting the superiority of their equipment. ”

“ The people of Flushing were not ones to take this indifference to their legitimate interests lightly. Sympathetic and patient at first to the lapses of the road, they gradually realized that the true owners were interested solely in pocketing the earnings of the railroad and getting their dividends regularly. How the trains ran, or indeed, if they ran at all, were of little or no concern to the owners. Once before the people of Flushing had rebelled against conditions on their railroad in the days of Oliver Charlick in 1859–60. ”

“ In July the first steam shovel went to work and the second followed in August.
The operations at Rocky Hill were so spectacular that people came from miles around just to watch. One hundred men were constantly at work and locomotives with trains of cars moved up and down on each side of the summit. Two miles of trestle work were built, one mile on each side, to create a grade of precisely fifty feet to the mile. The cost of the machinery on the Rocky Hill section alone was $50,000 and the expense of furnishing the water needed for men and locomotives ran to $30 a day. ”

“ Certainly the owners of the road in New York, all politicians and business men, knew nothing about the running of a railroad and believed that by entrusting the property to men with horse car experience like Charlick and Ebbitt, that all would be well. It is just possible that these men might have succeeded had it not been for the inadequate budget on which they were expected to run the road. ”

“ In February, 1874, as a result of a reduction in freight rates, the manure hauling business doubled. Large numbers of new flat cars had to be turned out at the College Point shops, and some of the longest freight trains ever seen left Hunter's Point. We are told one freight train totaled twenty-four cars, which was then followed by an equally long manure train; to move the volume of goods it became necessary to do much night hauling on the single track road to avoid interference from daylight passenger movements. ”

“ From the very earliest days of the incorporation of the road, they had cast an appraising eye on the traffic possibilities of the Rockaways, as yet untapped by the Long Island RR. Before the Civil War, surf bathing and beach visiting were virtually unknown; it is difficult to imagine in our day when sun bathing and swimming have become a national cult and part of the mores of American society, that great beaches like Coney Island and Rockaway, only a few miles from the metropolis, were deserted and barren sand dunes. ”

“ When the Flushing R.R. project came up, therefore, about 1850, the North Shore villages saw in it the possibility of realizing their dream of railroad connection with the outside world. It is difficult for us today to realize the deep isolation of these rural communities before the coming of the railroad. Life in these hamlets was static and contact with the outside world limited to stage coach accommodation once or twice a week. ”

“ What he did not and could not foresee was that the Poppenhusens would soon become such formidable rivals of his own Long Island R.R. Charlick was probably reluctantly willing to sacrifice the Flushing and College Point business to his rivals, but when they joined with Alexander T. Stewart to build a large system threatening him at every point, it was time to stage a counter blow.
As early as June 1869 a rumor flew that Charlick would build a branch from his own Long Island R.R. to tap the profitable traffic of Flushing. Such a branch would attack the Poppenhusens in their own stronghold. ”

“ The land at this point rises from forty to fifty feet above sea level to a mean elevation of 140 to 160 feet, much of it gravel of glacial origin. With the primitive earth-moving equipment of 1870 this ridge loomed as a formidable barrier to the railroad builders of that day. In June the contractors brought to the attack the most formidable artillery that had yet been seen on Long Island up to that date: two steam shovels, the first of their kind on Long Island, sixty dump cars, two locomotives and a portable track. It was planned to work at the Rocky Hill cut both day and night. ”

“ The installation of a second track on any road is virtually equivalent to building it twice over, for it necessitates doubling the width of the graded area and doubling the size of all the bridges and culverts. When one considers that the South Side RR was running at its peak only nine trains a day each way, it is obvious that the second track was a luxury not strictly justified by the traffic. ”

“ The evil has been disgustingly obvious for a year past, but they are now so shamefully dirty that ladies in New York assign this as their only reason preventing them from visiting their friends in Flushing" ... "Why are the cars permitted to run day after day with windows broken, ventilators destroyed, with bell cord unhung, with brakes out of order, with floors unswept, with glass unwashed, and everything about them shabby and cheap?" ”

“ Oliver Charlick lost money on every passenger he carried, but stubbornly hung on, sardonically savoring the distress of his rival. The Poppenhusens tried to recoup their losses by charging the former rates on College Point and Whitestone traffic, but the residents shrewdly refused to buy tickets for their actual destination, preferring to pay only to Flushing, and then purchasing the cut-rate round trip tickets from there to New York. The Flushing public profited handsomely from the intense rivalry of the railroads. ”