I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THE RAILROAD by Marisa Masterson

NY Central Railroad 1884 (Library of Congress)

Bang! Smash! Squish! 

Photo from Wayne County Public Library Collection

Quincy, MA Derailment 1890

Those words describe railroads and travel by train in the last half of the nineteenth century. It was a dangerous time to travel on the rails. 

Between 1890 and 1900, six thousand incidents involving postal cars alone were reported. According to the National Postal Museum, over eighty clerks were killed and 2,072 were injured in those accidents. (Mail cars and the clerks inside them caught the worst of an accident, often, since they were placed immediately behind the steam engine. It was believed that this protected the people in the passenger cars.) 

In 1875, there were 104 head-on collisions--nicknamed cornfield meets--in the United States. Imagine two trains ramming each other at high speed!

 

Mid-Continent Railway Museum
in North Freedom, WI
(Visit if you have never been! I recommend it!)

Another shocking statistic was included in the Note from the Frontier. They report that there were over 8,200 train accidents in 1880. When compared to 1,202 in 1875, it is obvious that something was terribly wrong with the system in place. 

Another issue was wood. Most passenger cars were made from wood frames. These easily split apart in an accident. Worse, some actually filled with scalding water from the steam engine during a catastrophe. Also, wood tracks splintered. Wooden bridges collapsed. These needed to be more frequently updated and better maintained. The wood-framed cars caught fire from the stoves or kerosene lanterns.

And it could be as dangerous to work for the railroad as it was to be a passenger. Coupling the cars killed many people.Between July 1884 and June 1885 in Colorado, 9% of employees with reported injuries died, with coupling cars being the most dangerous job. (Google)

What caused these dangers? In the latter half of the century, as railroads built and expanded rapidly, the combination of high-speed, heavy trains, primitive technology, and human error led to frequent, often fatal, collisions and derailments. The emphasis was on having the means to travel without monitoring to be sure it was safely accomplished. In response, air brakes and metal-framed cars came into being. In the late 1800s, the government demanded a better system for monitoring tracks and automatic signaling devices. 

Why this look at railroad issues? The composer of the hymn Bringing in the Sheaves was killed in such a disaster. The train jumped the track, and the car in which Knowles Shaw sat rolled down an embankment. The forty-three-year-old evangelist died in the crash.

His hymn becomes the inspiration for my newest historical wholesome romance, releasing in April.

Click to Discover More!

Is it Real?

Post (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Photo (C) Doris McCraw

We write the story and our characters experience the highs and lows of life. But are they real? We hope they are real to the reader, but the emotions we elicit, where do they come from?

In this year where my word is 'experience' I look at events and my part in them as having experiences. This also brought to mind where do we find the depth we have our characters dive into as they maneuver their way through a story. Is it what we have experienced? Perhaps it's what we believe they would feel and experience. Pulling from real life does add a level of reality. Yet, sometimes we have no experience that fits that situation.

Photo (C) Doris McCraw

As I research and write, for two complementary blogs, the story of Civil War Soldiers and Civil War Wives who are buried in the local cemetery, I know I've no experience of what they must have gone through. The best I can do is take the facts as I find them and work to access some emotion that might be comparable. A poor second I admit, but it may be better than no emotion at all. If you wish to read about these people, there will be links at the end of this post.

As I write the next book, a story that partially takes place on a train, I can use my own experiences of traveling the rails. Yes, I've ridden on an old steam engine train with the requisite old cars. Yes, experience does help. Stay tuned for more about these two people and their train journey.

Virginia Strickler - Prairie Rose Publications Blog

Henry C. Davis - Western Fictioneers Blog

Chester H. Dillon - Western Fictioneers Blog

For anyone interested, I have a monthly substack newsletter: Thoughts and Tips on History

Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy. 

Doris

 

Time Zones

Time - the tick tock of the world that has us all marching from morning to night. But we didn't always have time zones. How did people keep it together?  

Locally, someone was responsible to set the town clock to noon at high noon. From that clock, the citizens set their watches.

But what about going from New York to Kansas? 

Before the trains, that really wasn't a huge issue. But once the trains came along and people could easily travel hundreds of miles a day, time became more of an issue.

In 1878, a Canadian, Sir Sanford Fleming proposed 24 time zones marked 15 degrees of longitude apart.

In 1883, the United States railroad adopted Fleming's time zones to keep the trains running and people to follow the schedules. 

In 1884,  a conference was held in Washington D C to set the zero hour in Greenwich England.  GMT

Of course, now, we have the added fun of daylight savings time to confuse us all.  

Another interesting fact, China uses a single time zone for its massive country which spans over 5 time zones.  Talk about collective think. 

So. that's a brief history of the time zones.  Next time you see a train give them a high-five for bringing about the use of time zones in the USA.
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Have a blessed day - no matter what time zone you're in.  : )
Patricia PacJac Carroll

My latest book is Summer's Love - A Belles of Wyoming book.  If you're looking for a fun, lighthearted clean and sweet romance, Summer's Love is ready for your reading pleasure.