A Treasury of Railroad Folklore by Botkin, B.A. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Welcome Page Contents Part One: Iron Horses and Iron Men

Introduction I. All in the Day's Work

"Hold-the-Fort" Ross Andrew Carnegie Takes Over the Line A Night on the Edge of Nothing Kid Hadlock Gets Jay Gould Through

II. Headlines and Heroes

Nellie Bly Death Valley Scotty's Special The Day Express and the Johnstown Flood The Hinckley Fire Kate Shelley The Saga of Casey Jones Casey Jones's Fireman Jesus Garcia, the Hero of Nacozari New England Hurricane The Runaway Federal Express

Part Two: Apprentice Years

Introduction I. Operation by Trial and Error

A Canal Stockholder's Outburst The Wagoner's Curse on the Railroad By Treadmill and Sail Peter Cooper Builds "Tom Thumb" A Setback for Steam What Happened to the "Best Friend" The "DeWitt Clinton" Launches the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad Boss of the Train (The First Bell Cord) The First Mile-a-Minute Run Snakeheads Six Days a Week or Seven? Railroads and Community Intimacy Indiana for Indianans American Chivalry Birth of the Ticket Punch The First Train Dispatching by Telegraph A Primitive Headlight The First Sander In the Days of the Wood-Burners Southern Railroading in Ante-Bellum Days

I. Train Dispatching As It Might Have Been II. Brandy in Tin Dippers III. The Strike That Failed IV. Human Nature V. The Perils of Operation

Pre-Pullman Sleeping Cars in 1860

II. The Iron Horse Goes to War

The Secret Entry into Washington Stonewall Jackson's Ruse The Andrews Raid Destroying a Railroad New Gages to Order War-Time Expressmen

III. The Advancing Frontier

River vs. Rail: Lincoln and the Rock Island Bridge Case General Dodge Discovers a Pass through the Black Hills An Indian's Account of the Plum Creek Wreck Strobridge Beats Casement in a Track-Laying Contest "Hell on Wheels"

I. "The Wickedest City in America" II. "A Quiet and Moral Burg"

The Last Spike

I. As It Was II. As It Wasn't

Moving a Court House The Pond Creek-Jefferson Depot Fight

IV. Grand Strategy

The Erie Gage War The Commodore and the Conductor What Brought About the Pennsylvania Turnpike Houck versus Jay Gould Harriman and the Runaway River Jim Hill in Action Why Danville Lost a Railroad How the Nickel Plate Got Its Name

Part Three: Vanishing Types

Introduction I. Boomer and Home Guard

Men Who Work the Trains Boomers Pie-Card The Crane with a Broken Neck "Pocatello Yardmaster" Spotters Leaves from a Callboy's Notebook Pay Car Train "Butch" Station or Depot? Man against Baggage Commuters' Lanterns "E" for Eats The "Deepo" and the Town

II. Banditti of the Rails

The First Train Hold-Up The Reno Gang Jesse James's Last Three Hold-Ups Rube Burrow's Raids The Strange Case of Evans and Sontag Boxed Bandits Shaming a Train Robber The Buried Treasure of the Overland Express Canada Bill and Three-Card Monte

III. Rail Stiffs

Road Kids Hoboes and Trains Transient Trackmen Frisco, the Tramp Royal Jeff Carr, Hobo-Stalker Nailing a Drag The Hobo and the Brakeman Hobo Hero Million-Dollar Mulligan The Rating of the Tramps Monicas on the Water-Tank

IV. Cracker-Barrel Railroads

A Short Line Is a Country Thing Short Line Eccentricities The Pontchartrain Railroad Decline and Fall of the West River Railroad At the Sign of the Moosehead Old Peppersass "Tweetsie" and Her People Otto Mears and the Rio Grande Southern The Rawhide Railroad: Short Line to Tall Tale The Serio-Comic Lancaster & Chester Rail Fans Collector of Railroads Long Island Commuters

Part Four: Main Line and Sidetrack

Introduction I. Tools and Tricks of the Trade

Transition Tallow Pot on the Old Black River Line

I. Railroading Was in My Blood II. The Roundhouse III. The Shop IV. Firing a Wood-Burne

The Track Man and the Section Foreman Pat's Storekeeping O'Callahan's Solution Safety in Sleep Economy Yardmaster's Troubles The Origin of "Wabashing" The Conductor and the Trainmaster Breaking the Rules in the Old Days In the Link and Pin Days On the Witness Stand A Catch The Last Desperate Expedient He Gave Himself Away Argument by Analogy A Lesson in Etiquette Ingalls and the Operator The Red Flag Washout Finnigin to Flannigan The Wind Was High Racing Again A Carload of Mules Enough Was Enough Tenderfoot Officials Greenhorns Student Switchman They Didn't Speak the Same Language The New Brakeman The New Fireman Freight Car Repair Yard Pranks Pranking and Hazing Railway Mail Service Substitutes Railway Mail Catching Stories Pullman Porter Sign Language and Lingo The Runaway Pullman Car "Operator's Fist" and the Phillips Code Dots and Dashes The Harvey Girls Locomotive Bells Whistle Talk Track Torpedoes The Caboose Railroad Slanguage A Railroad Prayer

II. It Did Happen Here

999 Disaster Made to Order A Monument to Rent The First Cross-Continent Speed Test The South Carolina Earthquake of 1886 The Deadly Drums The Lost Freight Car The Runaway Freight Car Engineer's Expedient The Latest Train on Record Hay-Burning Motive Power Rerailing a Locomotive Track Ballast A Long Mile A Ride on a Handcar Nephi's Problem Traveling Shoes Roy Bean's Party for Jay Gould The Self-Operating Railroad An Exchange of Courtesies A. Lincoln Asks for a Pass Railroad Laws to End All Laws The Railroad Conscience Fund Stormy's Million-Dollar Cap How the Underground Railroad Got Its Name How the Shortest Station Name Happened "Who Is This J. B. King" The Story of Phoebe Snow Chessie, the Sleepy Cat Owney, the Rail Dog Rails and Robins Railroad Superstitions

I. Turning an Engine "Agin the Sun" II. The Deadly Number Nin

The Maco Ghost The Phantom "Lincoln's Funeral Train" Daddy Joe Porter Daniels John Henry

III. Told in the Roundhouse

The President's Daughter Wild Hoggers on the "Hook and Eye" Division's Loop Plugging Leaky Flues In the Fog Mosquito Story Smart Dog Budd McKillips' Cal Bunyan Railroad

IV. The Passenger is Always Right

The Passengers Were Hysterical Battle of Jokes Corn by the Carload Slow Train Whistle Stop Snoring on a Sleeper Public Relations The Upper Is Lower A Variant of "Put Me Off at Buffalo" Where He Got the Ice Commuter Tricks Senator Sherman and the Beans

Part Five: Blues, Ballads, and Work Songs

"Lonesome Whistles" I. Irish Immigrants and Western Emigrants

Paddy Works on the Erie Way Out in Idaho Jerry, Go and Ile That Car Drill, Ye Tamers, Drill Zack, the Mormon Engineer

II. Negro Gang Work Songs

Tamping Ties Track Lining Song

III. Brave Engineers

The Wreck of the Old 97 The Wreck on the C&O The Little Red Caboose behind the Train Been on the Cholly So Long

IV. Hobo Songs

The Gambler You Wonder Why I'm a Hobo The Wabash Cannonball

V. Blues and Love Songs

Cannonball Blues 900 Miles A Railroader for Me

Appendix

Railroadiana

A Century of American Locomotives and Their Builders Locomotive Naming Passenger Train Naming Sleeping and Parlor Car Naming Freight Train Names and Nicknames Railroad Names and Nicknames Fun with Initials Railway Post Office Route Nicknames The Tangle of Gages The Coming of Standard Time The Official Guide A Century of Passenger Train Coloring

Acknowledgments Index About A Treasury of Railroad Folklore Reviews About Benjamin A. Botkin and Alvin F. Harlow (ed) Also by Benjamin A. Botkin and Alvin F. Harlow About Christian Wolmar's Railway Library An Invitation from the Publisher Copyright

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