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So, I wasn't aware of this: the town of Winona Lake (a bit NE of here) more or less burned to the ground in 1914. They had a "fire department", per se, but it was kind of in startup mode, and already had a hose and a nozzle, but no pump. The truly amazing thing is that the telegraph operator for the local railroad station (every town had one back in those days, even if they didn't have a real fire department) wired over to Fort Wayne for help, and in FORTY MINUTES they had an engine and a fire company in Winona Lake. That's more or less 40 miles in a straight line. Given ten minutes to alert the firemen and load a pumper onto a flatbed, and hook up a ready-to-go engine, they'd still have had to maintain 100 mph or so for 35 miles or so of the journey (and hope that everyone was paying attention at the grade crossings). I think that's doable in 1914, although it would have been a frantic scramble. It would be impossible, IMHO, today.
Tales from the Railway
Oct. 6th, 2020 11:55 pmNew from Heart of Albion Press, a small specialty publisher well worth checking out if you've a taste for British oddities,comes "Tales from the Railway": The story of the Whittlecreek and Eaton St. Torpid Heritage Railway. It's a satire about running a heritage railway, based around (or 'inspired by' as they say these days) Rowland Emett's bizarre cartoons about trains, from WWII and just after. Like much of the Albion Press ouevre, it's free, so long as you're happy with a digital download and don't need hardcopy.
