September 27th 1903
Cider Bailed Into Apple Butter, On the Bloomsburg & Sullivan R.R.
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“Yes, sir.” Said Barney Case, of Espy, Columbia County Pa, to the snake editor the other night. “ I’m sorry to say that Dave Campbell has resigned the superintendency of the Bloomsburg and Sullivan railroad. And while I'm sorry that Dave has given up the job I'm glad to hear that he has a better one and I hope it is at railroading, for if ever there was a real genuine railroad man in these here United States it was Dave Campbell.
“That their young fellow they've put in Dave’s place is
alright, too, as an ordinary first class railroad man but Dave Campbell was in
a class all to himself”
“When Dave Campbell took hold of the Bloomsburg and Sullivan
railroad it was kind of run down at the hill and the principal assets consisted
of an old locomotive, a train of cars, a right of way and two steep streaks of
rust, and the trains ran so irregular that when you'd get on the train tonight
at light St. to go to Benton you'd meet yesterday mornings train.
“But after that you've got a hold of the road everything
changed and now he turns it over to a successor, a first class modern railroad
“Dave had tough sledding at first but he always got away with it but once, and that was the time the forest fires burned down the water tank between central and Benton.
"The Bloomsburg and Sullivan railroad runs alongside fishing
Creek from Bloomsburg to Benton, but at the latter place it strikes right off
the Creek and runs into the mountains to central and Jamison city. Twelve years ago
the road had water tanks at Bloomsburg, Orangeville and Central, and that
summer they extended the road from central to Jamison city and they began
running trains through to Jamison city before they got a water tank built at
Jamison. The engineers used to fill their tanks at Orangeville and run through
to Jamison city and then stop at central on the trip back for water. One day
the directors of the road made a trip to Jamison city in a special car attached
to the mail train and on the way up the engineer filled his tank at Orangeville
and run on through to Jamison city. One of the pipes leading from the tender to
the boiler got broke while they was laying at Jamison city and before Bill Hidlay the engineer got the brake fixed most of the water had run away.
"Dave Campbell was with the party and when bill Hilda told
him about the water he went over to the engine and he and bill measured the
water and finally figured that they have just about 12 gallons more than they
need to make the run from Jamison city to the water tower at Central.
"When they went up that morning the forest fire was burning
close to the track on both sides and when they neared central on the return
trip that afternoon they found that the flames had swept down and burned the
wooden trusting that supported the tank, and the structure was in ruins. Bell
Hilda run the train on down to the depot and Dave, who was anxious to get the
train through to bloom on time, seeing that the directors were on board, came
over to the locomotive and found that they just as they had figured. Bill had
just about 11 1/2 gallons of water left.
"There wasn't any use in trying to get to Orangeville without
amount of water and Dave Campbell got rummaging around in the freight house and
finally found about 20 barrels of sweet cider consigned to the vinegar works at Bloomsburg. Well Sir Dave just whooped for joy when he saw that cider and in
less than a minute he had Bill Hidlay, Jim Johnson and the fireman the conductor
and the brakeman and the station agent rolling barrels of cider out of the
freight house and dumping the apple juice into the tank on the tender and after
they have poured in about 400 gallons Dave said he guessed that they had enough
to make the run to the tank at Orangeville 15 miles below, and the train pulled
out 12 minutes late. The engine was an old one that the Bloomsburg and Sullivan
had bought from the Redding Rd. and the master mechanic had built her carried
out an idea of his own by which the exhaust team could be turned into the tank
and not only heat the water so that it entered the boiler pretty near the
boiling point but save fuel as well.
"Seeing that they was 12 minutes late and being anxious to
make at the time bill Hilday turned the exhaust on the tank when they left
central and here's where he nearly ruined Dave Campbell's reputation as a
railroad man. Everything ran along all right and the cider steamed fast until
they got a mile below the Benton when Jim Johnson the fireman yelled over the
boiler at bill and said:
"Say Bill we only have two gauges of cider!"
"That's funny" said Bill, " I've had the injector on all the way
down new line". Then he shut the injector off and turned it on again full tilt
but in about 5 minutes the fireman yelled up at Bill again and says:
“Bill the glass don’t show no cider and it's below the last
gauge.”
“Then Bill got scared and he shut off the steam and put on
the air brake and when the train came to a standstill began looking around to
see what was wrong. Dave Campbell came running up and he says:
“What in Thunder are you stopping here for?”
“I can't get any cider to run through the injector”, replied
bill
“That's funny” said Dave and he began looking around and
finally he went back on the tender and lifted the lid off the manhole.
“It's no wonder”, he shouted back to Bill Hilda your chuckle
headed idiot you turn the steam on and the cider has boiled down to 300 gallons
of apple butter.
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For More History, Photos, and Stories of the Bloomsburg & Sullivan R.R.:
READ MORE
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In the 1900 Census, he is listed as the Superintendent of the Bloomsburg & Sullivan RR. In 1910 he is listed as an insurance agent.
William Robinson Hidlay 1875-1958
In the 1910 census he was listed as a watchman, and in 1920 he was listed as an engineer.
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