Nostalgia & History > Railroad Coppersmith

lwilton did a remarkable job of enlarging the map of Galion, Ohio and the list of the Officials & Employees of N. Y. P. & O. R. R. On this list was Spittle, Jas. J., Coppersmith.

I did a Google image search for Railroad Coppersmith and got a number of pictures.

Picture 1 is from the website,

https://greenbrierhistorical.wordpress.com/2013/04

Picture 1, “As smaller lines branched off of the Sewell Valley Railroad toward logging sites, private coal companies were developed in the areas surrounding Rainelle. In 1921, the Imperial Smokeless Coal Company in Quinwood shipped its first load of coal down the Greenbrier and Eastern Railroad and over the Sewell Valley Railroad to Meadow Creek.”

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For a Zoomit enlargement click on http://zoom.it/mH0z . Continue to click on the + button in the lower right of the picture until the enlarging stops. Use the cursor and the left mouse button to move the picture.

Picture 2 and 3 are from the website,

http://www.mindenmemories.org/L&A%20Railroad.htm

Picture 2, “I don't know any of these people. Not surprising, because we never knew anybody from the road crews in 1927-28. There are some things I see though. It is an early steam engine on an unimproved track. I don't think I ever saw one this old in service. From the looks of it, I would say it is a switch engine at a logging site. Reasons: It is fired by wood. I am not sure, but the ties look like hand-hewed ties. The ties are not graveled into place, therefore it must be a temporary road. The stump next to the track seems to bear this out. It would not be near a permanent track. The load of logs are bound down wagon style, indicating the picture was before my time.. I would guess, from the condition of the picture and the quality of it, that this was taken in the early 1900 era or even earlier. Therefore, find out what timber operations were supported by the railroad back in those days, and you might find the names of the people in the picture. This might even be a timber company locomotive not owned by the L&A or any railroad company. The engine does not wear a number unless it the number ‘3’ on the front of the boiler, which would seem to bear this out. Look for timber companies big enough to own an engine, and if they did, then they would probably build and maintain the track, delivering the timber to a mill in the vicinity or delivering cars to a railroad such as L&A. Now that you have read all of that, most of which you can also see, aren't you inpressed? Bubba Langheld

Mrs. Juanita Agan wrote in her Cameo's of Minden that the 1930 City Directory indicted that about 1215 of the City's 6,285 residents were employees of the L&A Railroad Company. Driving down depot hill, do you remember the sounds of the hammers in the railroad yards as the rails were placed on the track? How many times were you late getting home on a given Friday or Saturday night because the eleven o'clock train was blocking the railroad track? We sometimes wondered if it would ever move? Sometimes the train would have both Highway Eighty and Bayou Drive intersections both blocked.”

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For a Zoomit enlargement of picture 2 click on http://zoom.it/uo2E#full .

Picture 3, “P3006 MINDEN, LA FIRST LOCOMATIVE 1885 (F-308).”

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For a Zoomit enlargement of picture 3 click on http://zoom.it/KSu3#full .

Picture 4 is from the website,

http://brattleborohistory.com/merchant-manufacture/john-burnham-brass-foundry.html

Picture 4, “An 1885 Halladay Standard Mill. ‘Burnham's Frost Proof Tank’ Since the beginning of railroads, civil engineers have deemed the tank house, fuel and attendance, at water stations in northern climates, indispensable, and it is estimated that over $20,000,000 have been expended for this purpose. This became a serious objection to the use of the wind mill, as large tanks had to be provided to hold water sufficient to last through unusual calms; and to remove this objection, Mr. Burnham began experimenting , with a view of producing a frost-proof tank. For some time he met only with discouragement, as he could not induce a road to allow him to even try his experiment, and finally accomplished his purpose through a director of one of the railroads, who was a stockholder in the wind mill company. The first frost-proof tank has now been in use during five winters without house, fuel or attendance, and the road which adopted the improvement has already made a saving of more than $150,000, and the universal use into which this improvement is now coming, will, in the next quarter of a century, produce to the railroads of this country a saving of $25,000,000. Mr. Burnham attributes the success of his life not only to perseverance, untiring industry and an extensive business acquaintance throughout almost every State in the Union, but also to the superior mechanical and financial abilities of the men with whom he has been associated in business. Of the four patents which he has obtained, this last he considers by far the most important.”

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