MCEM-1951-06.Pdf
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BOSTON & MAINE RAILROAD HISTORICAL SOCIETY Ross Haycock The average freight shipment han• Railroader dled by the railroads in 1950 was moved 415 miles, compared with 351 miles in 1940. A milestone rarely reached in a lifetime will be celebrated this The modern car washing machine, month by a man with the twinkle equipped with whirling brushes, cleans of wisdom in his blue eyes, the GUNS AND BUTTER. Government the exterior of a 3-unit diesel-electric light-heartedness of youth in his losses on the disposition of 14 surplus locomotive in less than 3 minutes. walk, and a zest for living of ten. food commodities—including butter— * * * Roscoe H. "Ross" Haycock, 83, are calculated by one expert to have of Calais,—senior Gold Pass hold• Modern ballast cleaners are capable totaled $91.6 millions through last er, senior Eastern Division con• of removing, cleaning and replacing ductor, grand old man of the November. He estimates this to be ballast to a depth of 18 inches. approximately the equivalent of the * * * Maine Central Railroad—will com• ARRIVING in Bangor on Train 116 is a familiar plete 65 years of active railroading routine to Conductor Ross Haycock who will have done cost of 85,000 recoilless rifles—each "Buffalo Bill" received his pictur• it for most of his 65 years' service this month June 21. priced at $1,033 as of late in 1950. esque nickname through his contract Ross's storybook saga of loyal and ord. Ross is one of the few, if not * * * to supply buffalo meat to the construc• faithful railroad service reads like a the only man left in active service TANKS AND TURKEYS. For the tion forces of the Union Pacific Rail• history of railroading and establishes that fired a woodburner. And he re• same first 5 months of fiscal 1951, road. what we believe to be a national rec- members all six of them on the old losses on government dispositions of * * * surplus foods — including turkeys — St. Croix and Penobscot Railroad, Harold E. Stassen, former Governor BEFITTING the first issue of the Magazine after 17 from the "G. M. Porter" to the plus carrying charges, amounted to years was this cover photo of Ross Haycock in 1944 of Minnesota and now president of the "James Murchie" named for the about $22.4 millions a month, or more University of Pennsylvania, was once than the price of 100 light tanks— grandfather of Harold Murchie, chief a passenger train conductor on the justice of the Maine Supreme Court which cost about $200,000 each near Milwaukee Railroad. the end of the last year. and currently a director of the Maine * * * Maine (kf&udJ?ailMmd Central Railroad. In 1850, there were only 9,021 miles According to his own keen memory June was a significant month in rail• of railroad in the United States— EMPLOYEES MAGAZINE mostly in the states bordering on the Ross started railroading as a lad of road history to Maine people. On OCTOBER, 1944 "about 16" cutting brush on the St. June 25, 1834 ground was broken for Atlantic Ocean. Today, there are 224,000 miles of railroad and 397,000 C.&P for 50 cents a day. His father, Maine's pioneer railroad—The Bangor, Wallace, was the superintendent and Oldtown & Milford (chartered in 1833 miles of all railway track in the United States—forming a vast net• didn't want his son to railroad. "He as the Bangor & Piscataquis) and now wanted me to go to the University of is part of our own system. work of steel highways traversing every state of the Union. Maine and become a civil engineer," Ross recalled, "but it just didn't ap• peal to me." The Maine Central Railroad has re• There are 28 railroad tunnels in the After eight years of braking, firing, ceived shipment of 250 new steel box United States each of which exceed and conducting Ross came over to the cars ordered last fall. They add to one mile in length. the fleet of 4,361 cars owned at the Washington County & Somerset Rail• end of 1950. During last year 41 * * * way in 1898 as a conductor when it stock cars and 62 box cars were con• As a youth, General Omar Bradley took over the St. Croix and Penobscot. verted to rack cars for loading our was employed during his summer va• When the Maine Central acquired the important pulpwood industries. cations as a freight handler on the Qounty road in 1911, Ross stayed Wabash Railroad at Moberly, Mo. right on and has been a conductor * *•_*»' ever since with the exception of a Railroads are the only common car• Class I railroads had more new mo• period during World War I when he riers in the United States required to tive power on order on April 1, 1951, was trainmaster of the Eastern Di• carry whatever is offered at published than ever before, there having been on vision, a position abolished in 1921. rates, regardless of how unprofitable that date 1,883 locomotives consisting The genial Ross has worked under such traffic may be. of 2,420 power units awaiting delivery. nine superintendents ("I liked them all, and I think they seemed to like me," he said,) including such early Maine Central officials as James Seven Engines Haul FIRST TRIP, LAST TRIP FOR TURNER PUPILS Arsenault, M. F. Dunn, Tom Mc- Ail-Time Record Tonnage Laughflin, M. A. Thomas, now assist• ant general manager, and J. L. Over Mountain Grade Moriarty. All existing Maine Central reco/rds He was one of four Maine Central for freight tonnage carried over %he employes who carried our late presi• Mountain Subdivision were broken re• dent Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard cently when RY-2 hauled 80 carloads the train at Eastport when he was including 14 empties to total 4,198 stricken with infantile paralysis as a tons "over the hill,"—the 15-mile back young man at Roosevelt summer breaking run from Bartlett to Craw• home on Campebello Island. He re• ford Notch. members Gilbert W. Miller, now our To do it, the strangest collection of assistant freight traffic manager, as motive power in the memory of cur• a young boy who used to climb up rent railroaders and old timers, was on the engine with him at Baring; and coupled up to beat the grade that rises Frank A. Murphy, now assistant to 1,250 vertical feet on the run. the vice-president-Traffic, as a young On the head end of RY-2 according baggageman at Calais. to Assistant Trainmaster John Robert* son were engines J>85, 563 and 683^ alj, It's also reliably reported that the 1,500 hp rated. unHKe middlewere young Ross Haycock (has he ever three 1,200's numbers 332, 333, and been anything else but young!), was 331. And on the rear as a pusher was a man held in awesome respect by the that old stalwart Government Mickey, braves of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. the 616 Class S. TnTif behemoth of motive power Off the reservation for a Saturday negotiated the run successfully, the night spree in the old days, they were middle and rear engines were cut off wont to challenge Ross' eonductorial at Crawfords and the head end en• authority until, by eye witness ac• gines carried the job into St. Johns- count, he several times "stacked 'em bury, Vt. up like cordwood" in the coach cor• Location of the engines at the head, ner. Soon only the sight of his gold SHEPHERDING 64 Turner grade school pupils on their first train ride was fun for Conductor R. A. Young, Lewis- middle, and rear, Robertson explained, ton. At right foreground Teacher Olive J. Bradford who planned the trip buttons and friendly visage was was necessary to avoid placing too needed to quiet the 'Quoddy celeb• much weight on bridges at one time. rants. (The following story, indicative that railroading hasn't lost its lure to the younger generation, describes the thrill of Turner school pupils on their first train ride and Ross received his 50-Year Gold Pass Watchllt ! Your appeared under the by-lime of Portland Evening Express Staff Correspondent Jack Quinn.) in 1936. Proud of his family, he lives b . By JACK QUINN with his wife, 76, and daughter at Calais. All his spare time is spent Safety's Slipping "mowing the lawn and keeping up Maine Central employes who estab• Turner —• This was a red letter day in Europe," said Mrs. Olive J. Brad• the place," he revealed, even to lished an enviable safety record in "pointing up" the chimney recently for the pupils of grades three, four, ford, teacher of grades three and four, 1950 had better look to their laurels five, and seven here as all but two of who originated the train ride idea without benefit of a staging. in order to maintain it according to a the 64 members had their first train after reading that the railroad was Keen-eyed, agile, courteous and report on the first three months of ride. And to make the trip all the discontinuing passenger train service 1951 released by the Safety and Fire smiling, with the physique of a man more eventful, the thrilled youngsters on the branch line from Rumford Prevention Department. 20 years his junior, Ross daily boards made the 25-minute journey on one Junction to Rumford. The Stores Department led the pa• Train 122 at 8:15 a.m. for the 133- of the last passenger trains to serve rade of safety with a 100 per cent de• Mrs.