In 1856 he married Mary Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer (1822-1904) who wrote historical novels and magazine articles.
The stage lines viewed the new railroad lines as competition as did the canal boats which were “none too friendly to the railroad, as it was looking on it as a dangerous rival.” As they were progressing in very rural areas where money was scarce, the B&O RR had its own money and the contractors handed out 'script'.
"Reminiscences of early days in American engineering;
recollections of the late Randolph Brandt Latimer" Engineering News. NY: July 23, 1908 HERE ----
Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road
"As our readers know, some of the most notable work of the first
generation of American engineers was done in connection with the construction
of the Baltimore & Ohio R. R. One of the engineers prominently connected
with the work was Randolph B. Latimer [1821-1903, m1856]. In 1898 he prepared
at the request of his son [James] some brief reminiscences of his early
experiences in engineering work.
…Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was projected, arrangements were being
consummated to organize a through stage coach line from Baltimore to
Charleston, S. C., with the object of ultimately extending it to New Orleans.
As a small boy I recall having heard this subject frequently discussed at my
father's table. The rapid growth of railroads after the opening of the
Baltimore and Ohio very soon destroyed the business of stage coaching, and the
project was abandoned. Taking into consideration my connection with the
engineering department of the Baltimore and Ohio, which extended over a period
of more than ten years, you represent the fourth generation of us which has
been connected more or less closely with the transportation problems of the
nation.
Stage coaches
My father frequently took one or two of us children with him to Washington on the stage coaches of the line of which, as before stated, he was manager. This line operated over the Washington turnpike and was the only land connection between the North and the national capital and was well patronized, well equipped and profitable. My father was considered an excellent judge of horse flesh, and gave special attention to the purchase of the very best horses. The distance, 40 miles, was made in about four hours.
Stage coaches
My father frequently took one or two of us children with him to Washington on the stage coaches of the line of which, as before stated, he was manager. This line operated over the Washington turnpike and was the only land connection between the North and the national capital and was well patronized, well equipped and profitable. My father was considered an excellent judge of horse flesh, and gave special attention to the purchase of the very best horses. The distance, 40 miles, was made in about four hours.
First railroad strike
At this time almost all rough labor was done by Irishmen, of whom there
were a great many in Baltimore. … About
seven miles from Baltimore the line of the railroad first strikes the Elk ridge
and a deep cut and high fill is made there. Quite a large camp of laborers were
gathered at this point and some trouble started with the contractor. This led
to a strike being inaugurated, which in turn resulted in more or less rioting,
and the militia of Baltimore was called out to quell the disturbance. Some wag promptly christened the place where
the arrests were made “Vinegar Hill,” after the famous place of that name in
Ireland, a name which it bears to this day, and a street song was in everyone's
mouth with a chorus which rain something like this: “I’m all the way from
Vinegar Hill, I never worked and I never will.” This, I believe, was the first
railroad strike in America.
Quakers
The early promoters of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company were
for the most part so called Quakers, of whom there were a good many in
Baltimore at that time, and nearly all of whom were prosperous merchants. They
were shrewd men of business, worked in harmony with each other and were ever
watchful to promote the best interests of the company.
Gondola cars
This had led to complaints against the railroad by the canal, which was none too friendly to the railroad, as it was looking on it as a dangerous rival. Timber was plentiful and quite a business had grown up in building flat boats, called “Gondolas,” as a satire on the Venetian pleasure boats, which were loaded with coal and floated down the river to Georgetown, where the boat and its cargo were both sold and the boatmen returned generally on foot. The cars first used on the railroad for the transportation of coal were named after these boats “gondola cars.”
Benjamin H. Latrobe
It was about this time that I first met Mr. Benjamin H.
Latrobe. He was then quite a young man, but had been in the engineering
department of the Baltimore & Ohio for some years. He had surveyed and
built the Washington branch, the line from the Relay House to Washington,
including the viaduct over the Patapsco River at the Relay House. This work had
been carried to a successful conclusion and Mr. Latrobe was appointed to take
charge of parties which were to survey the line from Harpers Ferry west to the
Ohio River.
RR track curves
Mr. Benjamin Latrobe, who had entire charge of the work at
this time, so far as we were concerned, had profited by his experiences on the
older parts of the road and the line from Harpers Ferry west was built on much
better lines of construction than had been pursued earlier. Our orders were to
lay out no curve with a radius of less than 1,000 ft., unless Mr. Latrobe had
personally inspected the situation and had given orders to use a shorter
radius. On the old line, curves of a very short radius had been used. There was
one at Ilchester, between the Relay House and Ellicott's Mills, of little over
300 ft. radius, which was operated over until very recently. The line was
graded for double track.
B&O money ('notes')
At that time money for purposes of exchange was very scarce
in this region and contractors' scrip was in common circulation; the railroad
company, too, issued its own notes which circulated freely.
Engineering education
There was no school or college in the country except the
West Point Military Academy where engineering was taught, and that school had
been opened only a dozen years when work on the Baltimore & Ohio was first
started. We had no text books and no past experience to guide us. Each of us
kept private notes and worked out his own formulas. The winter that James
Randolph and myself spent at Sir John's Run, he and I tabulated a vast quantity
of such notes and formulas. It was from such work as this that Trautwine and
Charles Latimer [common gr-grandfather] compiled text books for the use of young
engineers. Much of our work probably was done by methods that would be called
crude to-day. Our curves, for instance, were laid out by offsets from a
tangent, which I am told is not done now.
Mr. James Preble Wormeley, who had studied engineering in the office of
the famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel—the greatest English engineer then
living—and had had several years' experience in building English railroads,
came to this country, he was appointed for a short time chief engineer of the
Baltimore & Ohio, and on leaving made the statement that the engineer corps
of that railroad was the finest body of engineers then in the world.
©2017 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD
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