Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/130

 114 tion of the Central R.R. In September 1872, well before the road was finished, the poles for the telegraph were going up all along the right-of-way. By July 1873 the telegraph at Central Junction was in operation. In December the road established a telegraph station in its switch house at Winfield Junction. A Western Union employee was put in charge and it was open to the general public. This was moved in January to Winfield depot; Western Union also operated a public telegraph station at Corona depot. By the end of 1873 the poles for the telegraph line stretched unbroken all along the right-of-way of the Central R.R. from Central Junction to Babylon. In the fall of 1874 the Flushing & North Side was reported as receiving from, and sending messages to, all parts of the country, the business being done for the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co. Flushing, with its three railroad stations, enjoyed the presence of three separate telegraph stations.

Despite the considerable size of the North Side railroad network, there were remarkably few accidents. Most of the known accidents were trifling, attributable more often than not to equipment failure:

April 4, 1873—Tender derails at College Point.

April 11, 1873—Engine "Winfield" derails coming off Whitestone turntable.

March 7, 1873—Misplaced switch at Hinsdale derails engine and one car.

July 14, 1873—A freight car and two flat cars loaded with brick picked up excessive speed while being switched onto a siding at Hempstead, struck two others and crashed through a bumper block.

August 7, 1873—Slight collision at Babylon.

September 24, 1873—Engine at Hempstead overruns the turntable and plows into the dirt.

December 17, 1873—Switch lock breaks at Garden City, while train is taking the siding, so that the Babylon and its tender take one track and its coaches another. Trucks sprained, but no damage.

June 18, 1874—Cylinder head on an engine at Flushing bursts, followed by the breaking of a piston rod.