Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Wondering about the First Passenger Carrying RR.

I love the railroads.  In past blog posts I have told you that I come from a railroading family.  Both my grandfathers worked for the railroads, and I worked for rail car builders for many, many years.  So, when I found that on this day in history back in 1807, that the Swansea and Mumbles Railway became the first passenger carrying railroad, I just had to blog about it.  It was located in Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales.  It operated from 1804 until 1960.

Back when it closed, it had been operating longer than any other.  It holds the world record for the most forms of ways to get traction than any other railroad.  It used horse-drawn, sail power, steam power, electric power, petrol and diesel as sources of power.

This is the only picture I could find on the Internet:
 
It was first used to carry limestone from the quarries.  From the picture above, I would surmise that it quickly turned to carrying passengers.  Did you notice that there is only one horse pulling it?  Heavy loads move a lot easier on rails than they would over land and rail tracks were usually laid as level as possible, going around hills instead of over them.  Compare the above picture to all you have ever seen of the western stagecoaches used in the U.S. way back when.  They had at least four horses pulling them.  It is so much easier to move something on rails than over ground.  Now, you all have a great day today, you hear?


15 comments:

  1. Steam has always been my fav in locomotives. When diesel came out, I was let down. I mean like, anybody can build a diesel locomotive, but steam.....wow boy howdy!!!!

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    1. Steam is the best way to run things. Even nuclear reactors us steam to drive the turbines.

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  2. I'm glad I caught the 'old' passenger trains. Used to ride them Dallas to Texarkana all the time to go back to see my parents. The smell and the sound and the dining car! ;)

    love trains. glad I missed stagecoaches... !

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    1. I have a picture (somewhere) that shows me as a toddler being held up to the open window in a steam locomotive that was driven by my Grandpa. Wish I could find that picture. If I do, I will post it.

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    2. You were so lucky Carolyn to have ridden on trains an' enjoyed the sounds an' smells. I'm jealous.
      My first encounter to ride a train, I got throwed in jail for hop'n a freight in Eugene Oregon. Only been on one other bout 30 years ago.

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    3. Thrown in jail? I'm shocked, Billy Bob... lol ... yes, me too... I loved riding on the train. I am wanting to do an Amtrak trip ... been looking at the passes...

      won't be the same but ... well? I don't know.. haven't been on one...

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    4. ah, yeah, Dizzy... the steam coming out had a smell... you know? I can still remember that smell but hard to describe... Creosote? from the rails? wooden rails? or was it the platform... Union Station Texarkana was HUGE ... and marble and heavily used because of its location... very interesting history and the good people of Texarkana have let it go into disrepair...

      Amtrak took over a small little office and use the tracks.. but the grand beautiful station itself ...

      Here's a bunch of pictures if yer bored.. ;) It's on the National Register for historic places or whatever it's called... just breaks m'heart to see it all tattered. I remember going there as a kid meeting my Aunt or others who came to visit .... Full of activity there...

      http://www.alpsroads.net/www/tx/union/l.html

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  3. Love trains too... would love to take a trip on one. My dad worked for it, here, until they ended the run to our end. We took a trip on one, to go visit his family,, way back in 50s. I watched a TV thing not too long ago, about the FANTASTIC passenger cars in EU, talk about luxury.

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    1. Since I worked for a lot of years for Pullman-Standard, I was keeping up the family tradition (grin). When I started there, I worked as a brakeman on their railroad.

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  4. I remember lots of train trips when I was a very young child. I can't describe the feeling in the pit of my stomach when we got south of Louisville and I saw "colored only" and "white only" signs on drinking fountains and restrooms. No one had ever told me about that but I knew instinctively it was wrong. But other than that I loved the trains.

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    1. Trains have played a big part in the history of this country. You witnessed a part of that and it wasn't a good part. I never experienced that where I grew up.

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  5. When I was very young the RR tracks ran behind our house... that was the coal driven locomotives. My favorite times were when the RR crew would ride along on the tracks on one of those "push/pull-up/down" little flat cars. I don't know what they're called. I never got to ride a train back then but since have taken a few trips across the USA on Amtrak. Love it!

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    1. Those carts were called "hand cars", I guess because it was powered by hand. My mother and my father both grew up by the tracks, but in different towns. Back then, most of the rr tracks ran beside rivers. Might as well let nature create the right-of-way.

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  6. A train runs near my home. In the winter the crisp sound of the whistle carries through the valley. Once PA returns to "green" I hardly notice it at all. Nice post, enjoyed the topic.

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    1. I was always partial to the steam whistles on the old steam engines. I grew up listening to them. I can remember when I saw my first diesel engine, which soon took over the railroads.

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