Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/52

 36 ported to yield $74,800 in gross receipts, with July 4 trains "crammed and jammed with record loads." On a typical Saturday, March 25, 1865, the passengers carried totaled 1700.

One of the most serious obstacles to the revitalizing of the NewYork & Flushing R.R. was the worn condition of its engines. The road was seriously underpowered from the beginning, with the New York and the Flushing the sole locomotives on the road from 1854 to 1864. On March 25, 1864 a third engine arrived from Danforth, Cooke & Co., which was named the Manhasset. The original two engines had suffered not only from eleven years of normal wear and tear, but from numerous accidents on the road:

May 12, 1855—Cowcatcher strikes cow and becomes entangled, almost derailing engine.

June 21, 1856—Locomotive runs onto turntable through misplaced switch and off it onto the dirt beyond.

October 8, 1859—Open switch derails locomotive and tender at Hunter's Point.

May 16, 1862—Flushing R.R. passenger train and L.I.R.R. freight train crash at Winfield Junction. Both engines badly damaged and Flushing R.R. engineer killed.

January 27, 1863—Engine and tender run through open switch into the pit of the Flushing turntable. Passenger coach damaged and fireman killed.

November 29, 1864—Engine and tender plunge into Jack's Creek.

February 14, 1865—Broken rail derails whole train; one car rolls down embankment.

July 8, 1865—Engine derails at Penny Bridge; passengers walk to Long Island City.

December 26, 1865—Night freight train loses one car, which is left on road in darkness. Next passenger train strikes it at full speed, smashing it and damaging the engine.

When one reflects that the locomotives suffered major damage not only in these publicized accidents but minor damage in numerous smaller mishaps, of which we have no record, plus the exceptionally hard wear inflicted by snow storms such as those of 1856 and 1857, it is no wonder that the engines were largely worn out.

In the press of 1865 and 1866 accounts appear at irregular