Ligonier Valley Rail Road Newspaper Articles
We have compiled over 1,400 newspaper articles that mention the Ligonier Valley Railroad, or related subjects. The articles were originally published starting in 1873 and our collection runs through 1995. Enjoy!
Latrobe Bulletin
Saturday, November 26, 1927
Received A "Shin-Plaster" For Running Seven Miles
Mr. Mellon Rode Behind a Mule
Frank Igo, former Latrobe boy, who earned his first money when as a boy he carried water to the men who built the L. V. R. R., and who is now the P. R. R. road foreman of engines at Tyrone, again found his memory stirred as he read accounts of the L.V.R.R.'s early days in the Bulletin; with the result that the Bulletin is enabled to publish another most interesting letter from him, telling of incidents which occurred during the first days of the operation of the railroad which is fifty years old, this month. The reminiscences follow:
The articles appearing in the Bulletin within the past few days referring to the early days of the Ligonier Valley Railroad have been very interesting to me as I earned my first money helping to construct the road.
This also was the beginning of my life's work. I at that time looked upon the L.V.R.R.'s little locomotive with wonder and was sure it was the greatest thing in the world. From that time to the present day I have lived with locomotives and have seen them grow from that little old fashioned machine of 45,000 pounds to the monster of today the P.R.R. locomotive No. 3700 Class HC1s which weighs 572,450 pounds. I have never lost interest in the L.V.R.R. When I come to Latrobe I always take a look at the Ligonier train and the power that hauls it. For many years their equipment compared
favorably with the best.
Dick Mellon was my superior officer when I started my railroad career, and I am closing it under his supervision, as he is one of our directors a director of the P.R.R., the greatest railroad in the world. I want to bring out how he advanced from the first conductor of the Ligonier Valley train to a directorship of the Pennsylvania Railroad the greatest of all railroads. Dick was a fine young man, gentlemanly and courteous and he was extremely well liked by all who knew him. He possessed the qualities for the
making of a good conductor.
I noticed an article signed "An Old Freight Jumper," published in the Bulletin. This boy was too young to be jumping freight trains and when Dick helped him off the train it was
done in a very gentlemanly and courteous manner and for the good of the boy.
Money was a very scarce article back in 1877 and I am sure if any one boarded Dick's train without money, who was really going some place, he was not put off of the train. The conductor permitted him to ride. The Mellons were fine men to work for. Every one who came in contact with them liked them.
I remember we had our trouble to get water for the locomotive when we first received it. Finally we reached Darlington and we knew of a spring on the hillside, probably one mile south of Darlington. Bob Newhouse made a trough to convey the water to the tender. It was a good arrangement, but it was open for some distance and a considerable number of leaves went into the tender and would finally collect about the outlet in front of the valve that fed the boiler. The leaves would close off the water supply entirely. They had to be removed and removed quickly. I was the only one on the job who could go in the tender and pass down the narrow leg to the valve and remove the leaves. I did this a number of times until we arranged a better plan of taking water.
I recall something that occurred when the track was laid up near where Uncle Joe Igo lived. We had an accident. Our engine and one of the cars were derailed and the more
we worked at it trying to retrack them the worse it became. Finally Thomas Mellon called to me to come to him. I responded immediately. He told me that he had to go to Pittsburgh that evening and he did not think the engine would be retracked in time to take him to Latrobe to catch his train. He said: "I can not take a chance; you go to Latrobe, get John Hilman to hitch Charley to the spring wagon and get back here as soon as you can." I was off at once. I ran more or less the 7 miles to Latrobe. Hilman and myself hitch Charley who was a large black mule to the light spring wagon and I met Mr. Mellon on the turnpike on the opposite side of the creek where the engine was derailed. He jumped into the wagon and said: "Let me drive!" We reached Latrobe in plenty of time for him to get ready and make the train. He gave me what was known at that time as a
"shin plaster." It was a 25-cent one. He told me I was a good boy and he would not forget me. I got an early quit and went home happy because I had pleased the boss and he had rewarded me for doing so.