Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/133

 The Heyday of the Poppenhusens the spikes were either loose or out altogether. Many ties could be kicked apart and the spikes drawn out by hand. Here and there washouts had left a tie loose and dangling. At the joints many bolts were loose and wooden "Dutchmen" were found breaching gaps at the rail ends. The loose ties affected the gauge in spots and the reporter marveled that an accident had not already taken place. The paper speculated on how rotten the remaining miles of road might be.

That there must have been some basis in fact for these strictures was silently acknowledged a week after the damaging evidence had appeared in print, when section hands were put to work and carloads of fresh ties appeared in Flushing. Even Poppenhusen and the seven directors thought it prudent to tour the line and see for themselves on an inspection trip made on April 22.

In bringing to a close this brief appraisal of the Flushing, North Shore & Central, let us take a look at the men who ran the road. Conrad Poppenhusen, about whom we have spoken earlier, was often in Germany almost the year around, and the posts of president, vice-president and secretary were rotated among his two sons, Herman and Alfred; Morris Franklin, an old stockholder and president of the New York Life Insurance Co.; and Loomis L. White, a wealthy resident of College Point. All through the life of the company, Elizur B. Hinsdale retained his post as secretary and chief counsel. The person closest to the work-a-day operation of the railroad was its superintendent. It was he who scheduled the trains, checked the equipment, hired and fired the employees, and made constant trips of inspection. The superintendent for 1873 was one L. F. Marshall, who tendered his resignation in July and went to work for the Long Island R.R. as train dispatcher. After a six months' interregnum, a highly capable and experienced man, Isaac D. Barton, took over the post as of December 1, 1874. He had worked for Charlick's Long Island R.R. in the Sixties, then had become superintendent of the United States Rolling Stock Co., and most recently, superintendent on the Atlantic & Great Western Railway of New York. Under Barton's energetic supervision the North Shore and the Central roads were very efficiently operated and skillfully managed. He knew how to handle men and speak their language and could be kind yet firm at the same time.

It was he who saw to it that the men got their pay from the