An article in the November 21, 1930 New Smyrna Daily News relates the experiences of W. H. Newell, a conductor on the early train.
Transcript, col. 1:
HARDSHIPS OF RAILROADING IN THE EARLY DAYS
W. H. Newell Recalls When There Was One Train
Railroading in and near New Smyrna was a man sized job back in the 80’s but still there wasn’t so much hustle and bustle about it or so many strict regulations, according to City Commissioner W. H. Newell, who spent 13 years as a railroad conductor.
Mr. Newell came to New Smyrna in 1887, when there were not more than a dozen houses in the little settlement where our beautiful city now stands. Canal street was a stumpy rutty thoroughfare and the little branch line of the railroad known as the Atlantic and Western was then the only one that operated trains into the city. The railroad had been built and trains running for three years when Mr. Newell came.
He came down from the Carolinas to take a job as conductor on the tiny little train that ran between New Smyrna and Orange City, where it connected with the old line of the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Company. It also ran on over to Blue Springs to connect with the boat line from Jacksonville.
Only One Train
There was only one train on the ine, and of course no need for train orders, Mr. Newell said. Naturally, there could be no danger of colliding with another train. The company did own two engines, both of them wood burners, but only one was used regularly.
Freight, express, passengers and mail were all hauled by the one train. “We had one regular passenger coach,” Mr. Newell told a Daily News reporter, “and one sort of a combination coach that had a section on one end for colored people, another section on the other end for white persons and a compartment in the middle where we carried express, baggage and mail. I was not only conductor but expressman, mail [text cut off at this point]
col. 2:
neer and I got together and figured out how it would suit best and then told the road supervisor, who always agreed and let us have our way about it.
“While we had regular stations, we were accommodating. If we had a load of fertilizer that was going to a man who owned a grove along the line between stations we would start the trip with that car on the read of the train, stop and leave it setting on the road at the grove, station or no station, and then come on into New Smyrna. When we went back the fellow who had ordered the carload of fertilizer would have it unloaded and we would shove the empty car back to the junction at Orange City. Sometimes when a whole caroload of fertilizer was not ordered at once we would stop and unload it at a grove ourselves. That saved the grove owners the trouble of hauling it over the poor roads from the nearest station.
Shooting Turkeys
Engineer Baker and I had a signal arranged so that when we ran into some wild turkeys along the track we could get a few of them. I always carried a gun with me in those days. When Baker would sight a flock of turkeys he would ring the bell on the engine twice very softly. I’d rush out, gun in hand, go over the tender and on up to the pilot of the engine. Standing there, we would ease right up to the turkeys and I’d usually bag a few of them before they got away. We weren’t in a big hurry. If I happened to cripple a turkey and he tried to run away we’d get out and chase him down. Why, I’ve even seen passengers get out and help chase an injured turkey.
No Roundhouse
“There was no roundhouse in those days and any repairs to cars, or the engine were made beneath a big tree which stood near the depot, near where the south bridge connects with Lytle avenue. We did the repair jobs ourselves. If we had a wheel to change it was up to us to do it. We always performed such tasks on Sundays, when no regular run was to be made.
Mr. Newell said that mosquitoes were something to talk about here in those days. “We don’t have any now, at all,” he says, in comparison. [text cuts off here]
whether I was fighting mosquitoes or giving signals.”
Good Business
Despite the fact that the little railway had only one train and two engines it did a pretty good business. The freight cars were always hooked on the rear of the train so that they could be backed onto the boat docks at the terminals.
The engine got water from a tank near the depot here. A water wheel was rigged up at an old flow well and pumped water from a spring farther away into the tank.
Stations on the line were New Smyrna, Glencoe, Indian Springs, Lake Helen, Blue Springs. There was also one by the name of Spartan. It was a small place and Myron Briggs often boarded the train or got off there. In appreciation of Briggs’ patronage, Conductor Newell changed the name of the station from Spartan to Briggsville.
Mr. Newell resigned from railroad work many years ago, and for a time was engaged in operating a ferry between New Smyrna and Coronado Beach.
He later engaged in the livery stable business, long before good roads [text cuts off here]
end transcript.