Two Old-Time Engineers
Recollections of the Early
Days of Railroads
Gad Lyman and Josh Martin, Rival Engineers of the Erie - A Memorable Excursion over the Road in 1851 - The Famous Trip of old 71, with a Notable Party Aboard.
(from Tri-States Union, Port Jervis, N.Y. July 23, 1885. Contributed by Richard Palmer.)
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“The death of old Gad Lyman, an account of which I read some days ago,” said a veteran Erie railway engineer, “leaves, I believe, only one of the pioneer engineers of that road alive and still in active service. This is Josh Martin, who must be now over 70. Lyman and Martin were rivals when they ran on the Erie, and it was Martin who ran the first train into Dunkirk on the Erie, in May, 1851. There is a nice story connected with that, and I’ll tell it.
“At the time the Erie road was laid through Dunkirk locomotive building was in its infancy in this country. Paterson (N.J.) was just beginning to attract attention by the superior machines that were turned out of her two locomotive shops, one of which is now known as Rogers Locomotive Works, and the other was, until recently, under the control of the late Commissioner Swinburne. (1)
“Rogers and Swinburne were then both struggling mechanics, and both had built engines for the Erie road. In 1849 the railroad had been completed as far as Binghamton, a few days before the time at which all the company’s property and franchise would have been forfeited to the State of New York. Josh Martin ran as engineer between Delaware Station, now Port Jervis, and Susquehanna. Gad Lyman had charge of trains between Piermont and Delaware Station.
“Lyman was a great friend of locomotive Builder Rogers, and Martin pinned his faith to Swinburne. On the opinion of the two engineers as to the merits of the engines, the two builders largely depended for favor with the company, and a consequent advancement of their respective interests.
“The first locomotive that Martin was put in charge of was of the the Rogers make. It was called the Oneida, a name which the engineer burlesqued into ‘One-ida,’ because, as he said, the engine seemed to have but one idea, and that it could no do the work that he wanted it to do. In 1850 the railroad company contracted with Swinburne for a new locomotive. Engineer Martin persistently be-sought the superintendent of the road to give him the charge of the engine when it was repeated. He wanted to give it the best possible show for itself, as it was, in one sense, a test of the Swinburne’s mechanical skill, and he feared that it might be given into the hands where it would not b treated fairly.
The engine came from the sho, and was called No. 71. To Martin’s great disappointment and chagrin, Gad Lyman was assigned to run the new machine. Lyman soon reported that he could not make his time with it, and it was condemned, and placed on the gravel train working between Piermont and Suffern. Piermont, on the Hudson river, was the eastern terminus of the road then, the Bergen tunnel not having been made until ten years later. The reported failure of No. 71 almost broke Josh Martin’s heart, and was a serious set back to Swinburne. Martin could not be made to believe that the engine was a failure.
He had watched her during construction, and had himself suggested appliances and arrangements and he felt sure that the engine was all that he had hoped for. He begged the master mechanic, a choleric gentleman named Brandt, to be allowed to give it a trial. After months of persistent solicitation on behalf of the disgraced locomotive, Brandt one day told him to take her and go to the devil with her, if he chose to.
“Martin told Swinburne to take her back to the shop and overhaul her. Neither the builder nor Martin could discover any serious defect in her mechanism, and she was turned over to the engineer without a tool put upon her. Martin ran on his division two weeks without losing a second of his time, and made the trips over the division with greater ease than he had ever been able to do before. At the end of the two weeks he had the opportunity to show what stuff there was in her, and in showing it he made the fame and fortune of the locomotive builder.
“Gad Lyman after discarding Swinburne’s locomotive, took No. 100, a machine of the Rogers make. He had no trouble in making his time with her. In May, 1851, he was notified that he was to run one of the excursion trains that were to carry guests of the road to Dunkirk to participate in the opening of the road from the Hudson to Lake Erie.
“The train was to start from Piermont, It was composed of nine cars. That whole train cost less than the price of an ordinary Pullman car of today, but it had a cargo of human freight such as no other train since ever carried on this continent. President Fillmore, Daniel Webster, his Secretary of State; John J. Crittenden, his Attorney General; N. K. Hall, his Postmaster-General; and W. C. Graham, his Secretary of the Navy, were all on Board.
William H. Seward, Hamilton Fish, and Stephen A. Douglas, United States Senators, were of the party. Ex-Governor Marcy, Daniel S. Dickinson and writer Washington Irving were also numbered among the excursionists. The Dodworth Band furnished music during the trop. The train was draped in the national colors, and flags fluttered from every spot where one could be fastened on the train.
It was not only to be the longest railroad ride on one continuous line of railroad but under one management that had ever been taken in America, but it was to be historical, because it was to be the inauguration of a railroad communication between the seaboard and the Great Lakes.
“Engineer Lyman coupled No. 100 to the precious train and started with it from Piermont. Before he got to Suffern he found that his engine was not able to pull the unusual load and make any kind of time. He reached Suffern several minutes late, and there another locomotive was put on to help him out. When they reached Middletown the train was three-quarters of an hour behind the time that had been scheduled for it to run by. “Then Charles Minot, who was the superintendent of the road and one of the passengers on the excursion train, telegraphed to the agent at Port Jervis to order Josh Martin and No. 71 to be ready on the arrival of the train to take it on westward. Josh was on hand with his pet engine when the excursion train arrived. Martin ran between Port Jervis and Binghamton.
“Swinburne, the locomotive builder, was one of the excursionists. He had not known until the train reached Port Jervis that his locomotive, which had once been condemned by the company, had been ordered to go with the train. The Rev. Henry Dutcher, now one of the oldest residents of Port Jervis, was a witness of what occurred. He says that Swinburne climbed up on the locomotive by Josh Martin’s side, looking very pale, and trembling violently. He knew that with such a trial as was about to be put upon his handiwork, after the failure of a specimen of his rival’s work, his entire future rested.
“If the trial was successful, he felt he was a made man. If it was a failure, he knew that he had many years yet of hard struggling before him.
“‘Josh,’ he said, ‘what do you think? Can we do it?’
“Martin stood on the footboard as cool as if had nothing more serious to perform than the switching of a freight car. He grasped the throttle, and, turning to Swinburne, said:
“Swinburne, if I don’t make you this trip, I’ll ditch old 71, and go to the devil with her,’
“A minute later they pulled out, and No. 71 was whirling the train along the precipices of the Delaware division. There had been some fast running over the Delaware division of the Erie since that day, but no train ever made the run between Port Jervis and Narrowsburg, a distance of 34 miles, as quickly as that pioneer through train did, heavy as it was for its day.
“The time was taken by the conductor, who was the late Capt. Ayers, familiarly known as Poppy, and by several of the passengers, and the record made of it. The run of 34 miles was made in 35 minutes. The great speed of the train alarmed many of the passengers, and several left the train at Narrowsburg. When the train reached Deposit, 60 miles further beyond, it had made up all the lost time. The schedule time was maintained until the extreme western part of the road was reached, and then the newness of the work among the Cattaraugus hills required great caution in running, and the train reached Dunkirk behind time.
“As an evidence of its appreciation of Josh Martin’s skill in handling his locomotive on that historical occasion, the company presented him with a valuable gold watch and chain, which, we hear, he still wears. The last I knew of the old man he was running a switch engine in the Jersey City yard. From the great run of No. 71 Swinburne always dated his great success in life, and he died a year or two ago in Paterson, full of honors, and with his name familiar throughout the mechanical world.” (2)
(1) William Swinburne and Thomas Rogers were “bitter rivals” in the locomotive business - Evening Gazette, Port Jervis, N.Y., July 20, 1885.
(2) Martin died June 17, 1885 at his home at 138 Alexander Ave., corner of 134th St., Mott Haven, N.Y. At the time he had been an engineer on the New York & Harlem for 20 years. - New York Herald, June 22, 1885.