If you were in the market for a watch in 1880, would you know where to get one? You would go to a store, right? Well, of course you could do that, but if you wanted one that was cheaper and a bit better than most of the store watches, you went to the train station! Sound a bit funny?

Well, for about 500 towns across the northern United States, that's where the best watches were found. Why were the best watches found at the train station? The railroad company wasn't selling the watches, not at all; the telegraph operator was. Most of the time the telegraph operator was located in the railroad station because the telegraph lines followed the railroad tracks from town to town. It was usually the shortest distance and the right-of-ways had already been secured for the rail line. Most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators and that was the primary way that they communicated with the railroad. They would know when trains left the previous station and when they were due at their next station. And it was the telegraph operator who had the watches. As a matter of fact they sold more of them than almost all the stores combined for a period of about 9 years.

This was all arranged by "Richard", who was a telegraph operator himself. He was on duty in the North Redwood, Minnesota train station one day when a load of watches arrived from the East. It was a huge crate of pocket watches. No one ever came to claim them. So Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted to do with the watches. The manufacturer didn't want to pay the freight back, so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them. So Richard did. He sent a wire to every agent in the system asking them if they wanted a cheap, but good, pocket watch. He sold the entire case in less than two days and at a handsome profit. That started it all. He ordered more watches from the watch company and encouraged the telegraph operators to set up a display case in the station offering high quality watches for a cheap price to all the travelers. It worked! It didn't take long for the word to spread and, before long, people other than travelers came to the train station to buy watches.

Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watch maker to help him with the orders. That was Alvah. And the rest is history as they say. The business took off and soon expanded too many other lines of dry goods. Richard and Alvah left the train station and moved their company to Chicago -- and it's still there.

YES, IT'S A LITTLE KNOWN FACT that for a while in the 1880's, the biggest watch retailer in the country was at the train station. It all started with a telegraph operator: Richard Sears and his partner Alvah Roebuck!

This is a true story. A common scam of the day was for wholesalers to ship unordered price inflated goods to retailers then negotiate a lower price to prevent the return of the goods. In 1886 23 year old Richard Sears was the station agent for the Minneapolis & St Louis RR at Redwood Falls, Minnesota when a local retailer refused such a shipment of gold watches. Richard worked out a deal with the wholesaler and made about $5000. He moved to Minneapolis and started the R W Sears Watch Co, and then moved to Chicago where he hired watch repairman Alvah Roebuck as his first employee and later co-founder of Sears Roebuck & Company. Richard retired in 1908 a very wealthy man, but died in 1914 at the very early age of 50.

Source and acknowledgements to Digest Number 1801 of Train Editors: traineditors@yahoogroups.com

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How many gold/silver spikes were used at the joining of the 2nd American transcontinental railroad? This is the event that happened in Promontory, Utah in 1869. Answer: 4 spikes, plus one aurelwood tie with a silver plaque, and a silver plated spike maul. Read more at this website: Utah, 1869
The first railway linking the Atlantic with the Pacific was begun in Central America in 1850, completed by 1855, and traversed 50 miles from the Carribean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. It began in Colon, Panama and went southeast to Panama City. More at: Panama Railway.

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Click here to go to a website loaded with old railroad-themed newspaper cartoons.

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Enjoy a four-minute video for the "Real Collector" in all of us !

Click HERE !

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A short video on how model railroading can improve one's life!
Click HERE !

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            In December of 2005, the Bennett Levins arranged for disabled veterans to 
            be taken to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy football game. Read more at: 
             The Liberty Limited   

            And just to verify, read:   
            http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/train.asp 

  

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            The 2nd Saturday of every July, in Laguna Niguel California, people line
            up along the Amtrak right-of-way and "moon" passing trains. Read more at: 
             http://www.moonamtrak.org/  
            In 2008 it got a bit our of hand; in 2009 the city promised to tame it down.
       
            There have been reports that this activity also exists on the Amtrak ride from 
            Denver to Salt Lake City. Some rafters mooned the train right next to the Colorado 
            River. It must be some sort of thing to do.  Some of the train riders knew about 
            it and were expecting it...

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Regarding the origins of the "Standard Gauge" of 56-1/2", it is said thought to have originated from the Roman chariot ruts in 2000 year-old city stone roads. Also, the perpetrated story that the Space Shuttle rocket dimensions are based on this dimension, or the "width of a horses ass..." is true or false? Is it ?

See Snopes.com railroad gauge discussion at: www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm

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                Fierce-throated beauty !
                Roll through my chant with all thy lawless music'
                  thy swinging lamps at night'
                Thy madly-whistled laughter, echoing, rumbling
                  like an earthquake, rousing all.

                --- Walt Whitman, "To A Locomotive In Winter"

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                                    "Travel"


                      The railroad track is miles away,
                          And the day is loud with voices speaking,
                      Yet there isn't a train that goes by all day
                          But I hear its whistle shrieking.

                      All night there isn't a train goes by,
                          Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
                      But I see its cinders red on the sky,
                          And hear its engine steaming.

                      My heart is warm with the friends I make,
                          And better friends I'll not be knowing,
                      Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take,
                          No matter where it's going.


                            --- Edna St. Vincent Millay

  

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A mother and her young son were riding the B&O Railroad from Baltimore to Chicago  ..
 
The little boy, who had been looking out the window, turned to his mother and asked, 
'If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don't big trains have 
baby trains?'

The mother, who couldn't think of an answer, told her son to ask the conductor.
So the boy went down the aisle and asked the conductor, 'If big dogs have baby dogs 
and big cats have baby cats, why don't big trains have baby trains?'
 
The busy conductor smiled and said, 'Did your mother tell you to ask me?'

The boy said, 'Yes, she did.'
 
Well then, you go and tell your mother that there are no baby trains because the 
Capitol Limited always pulls out on time. Ask her to explain that to you.



  

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Enjoy Railroading !

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