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Archiver > PADAUPHI > 2004-01 > 1075485508


From: "Houston" <>
Subject: Re: [PADAUPHI] Cars, Canal Boats and Stages in 1829
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 12:58:28 -0500
References: <000001c3e752$efc2a030$6501a8c0@gypsy>


Thanks, that's a pretty neat site. I also consulted my 1960 copies of the
World Book Encyclopedia (I will never throw them out, they are a wealth
of information, and much of what was history then (1960) is no longer
included as history in the new CD Grolier type of encyclopedias). The
Encyclopedia did note that 1830 was when the first railroad was run to
haul passengers. The Baltimore and Ohio ran a few horse drawn passenger
cars a few miles out of Baltimore.
I also went to the Map Collections web site of the Library of Congress and
found an 1829 map of Pennsylvania. Canals were marked (the Union Canal
went through Dauphin Co.) and a Proposed Railroad was marked from
Harrisburg to Chambersburg.
Your right when you mention that once the technology was reliable the age of
railroads took off at a fast pace. Transportation was so important for
commerce,
passengers were not the priority.

So, maybe when they mention "cars" they are referring to the horse drawn
rails,
I just never came across a reference to it before in Dauphin County.

Marcia Fronk

----- Original Message -----
From: "William Penrose" <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 12:03 PM
Subject: RE: [PADAUPHI] Cars, Canal Boats and Stages in 1829


> Go to the site below and see just when railroads started up in the east.
> It was a very rapid development after rails were chartered.
>
>
>
> http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/nation/train_1
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Houston [mailto:]
> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 8:39 AM
> To:
> Subject: [PADAUPHI] Cars, Canal Boats and Stages in 1829
>
>
> I'm trying to figure what "cars" is referring to from the following page
>
> from the "History of Dauphin County" 1907.
>
> In a report by the committee on roads to the State senate, dated 1829,
> appeared the following:
>
> "Arrival and Departure of Cars, Canal Boats and Stages. (Colder's Line)"
>
> The Philadelphia cars leave Harrisburg every morning at 7 1/2
> o'clock,
> and at 4 o'clock p. m. and arrival from Philadelphia at 6a. m. and 2 p.
> m. .....
> Chambersburg cars leave here every day at 8 1/2 a. m. and 2 1/2 p.
> m.
> Arrive from Chambersburg at 7a. m. and 2 p. m.
> The Express Packet Boat leaves Harrisburg every day at 2 1/2 p. m.
> and arrives from Pittsburg every day at 10 p. m. .....
> The Reading Stage leaves daily at 8 o'clock a. m. and arrives from
> Reading daily at 8 p. m....
>
> The Packet Boats are the canal boats, the Stage is well, a horse drawn
> stage coach, would anyone have an idea what they meant by "cars"?
>
> There was no passenger railroad that I'm aware of in the late 1820's,
> unless
> they were cars on tracks being hauled by horses. Steam engines were just
>
> making their debut as a curiosity in this country in 1829.
>
> Marcia Fronk

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