Opal's Diner: Behind the train station in Livingston Manor, stood a small building that housed Opal Griffin's Diner, Her place contained all the basic elements that made a great eatery. Of course there was a kitchen and grill where both regular meals or short orders were prepared. There was a place to hang your hat and coat, and as strange as it sounds, I remember the wooden doweled dish rack suspended over the sink where the washed diner plates, cups and saucers were placed and awaiting the next patrons. After the passenger service ended on the O&W, Opal moved her diner inside the station in the vacated ticket office on the west end of the station. After the railroad went out of business, Opal moved to another section of town. . .No matter where Opal's Diner moved there was one thing that attracted me right away.....the mornings wonderful aroma of bacon, eggs and toast! Her apple, cherry and blueberry pies were wonderful too and the aroma was noticed even outside the place. I made it a part of my weekday itinerary to pass by Opal's exhaust fan on my way to school just to take in those wonderful odors that were coming from her kitchen. I'm sure there wereand still are many people that stopped at the Diner between trains and still remember her home style cooking and establishment that provided the kind of nourishment and comfort people needed. I remember one other small diner much like Opel's that was also located near the O&W tracks and station at Cadosia, not far from Hancock, NY. I'm sure there were thousands of similar places to find a meal or just a cup of coffee in as many small towns nearby the tracks and stations of Americas many railroads.

    The US Mail: Everyone knows the role that the railroads played with the movement and delivery of the US Mail. I'm not sure we all know to what extent it was involved. There was a time when the mail was actually being processed and sorted while on the train and moving. By the time the train arrived at the next village the mail was ready and bagged. These were highly efficient systems that carried on the daily business of the US Postal service. After the railroad, I remember that they tried something similar in a large bus type vehicle all painted up in red, white and blue Post Office colors. This apparently failed and disappeared in a matter of time.

    Mail Cart: I can remember the mail as it was moved to and from the train. A two wheeled cart
was used to transport it across and up Main Street. Joe Lacey was the man who pushed the cart
and was often heard cussing every step of the way. He tended to be a little loud and sometimes offensive
to tender ears. It may or may not have been true but as the story was told, Old Joe was often careless in
the way he handled some of the parcels he was charged with delivering between the O&W station
and the Post Office. He was alleged to have complained to the Postmaster about a Stove that he
himself had ordered and had found broken. He must not have recognized the particular article as
none other than his own! "What goes around, comes around!"

    Railway Express Agency: One of my closest friends, Bob Butler, got a job with the Railway Express Agency located at the east end of the Manor O&W station. This turned out to be a most interesting summer for the both of us. Leonard W. Quinn, Express Agent, was one of the most kindly persons I can remember from my home town and he had to be especially tolerant, or surely he would have drowned me at the closest watering hole just for being constantly under foot. His way of getting rid of me was to hand me a quarter and sending me in the direction of the candy store. The things I remember best about his office besides the conductor and agent caps hanging on pegs behind the door was the counter with a pail of mucilage and brush they used to adhere the shipping tags to the boxes and steamer trunks. Shipments coming in consisted of all kinds of great stuff. The hotels, of which there were many in those years, were receiving equipment and supplies such as fresh seafood. Hoos Bakery was getting bags of flour, sugar, shortening and boxes of yeast. The summer campers were shipping military duffle bags and steamer trunks along with cardboard boxes of personal items. On one particular day it was hot and the incoming cargo was several carts full. Soon after the train pulled away, a strong odor became quite noticeable. This odor quickly became worse and then a priority! . . There was even some speculation that someone may have stashed a body in one of the many duffle bags. After a closer but difficult examination of the cargo, there were a number of cardboard boxes located and when opened the manifest divulged the biggest and most juicy night crawlers (Fish worms) I had ever seen. The problem was they were not crawling anymore. As hard as it was, I helped my friend cart them up the tracks away from the station where we put them back in the ground where we wished they had all remained. Our local bait supplier had to go without fish worms for a day or so.

    Tobacco: We frequently found red and white Prince Albert tobacco cans along the O&W right away. These were the flat metal ones with the hinged cover. There were also other brands in the same type of can such as Half n' Half. These were perfect for fish worms or even marbles because they fit in a shirt or hip pocket. Between the Acts little cigars came in a metal tin and also had a hinged cover but these were not as good as the others. I watched the section gang workers that smoked cigarettes especially those that rolled their own as that was the way it was done if you were a real railroad man. I was impressed by the way they would hold the paper between two extended fingers and pour just the right amount of their choice of tobacco. Then bringing the masterpiece within reach of their tongue they would moisten the very edge and then twist one end while tamping the other, it was now ready for a light. Of course there were pipe smokers too and they also used tobacco from a can but I don't remember too many of them. It was hard to swing a sledge hammer or do any serious railroad maintenance work with a pipe jammed between your teeth. One would really have to sit down to smoke a pipe. I once had a friend say, "Pipe smoking is an occupation all in itself!" . . Ooooh Yes! . . There was at least one fellow in every crew who could hold the cigarette paper, pour tobacco, lick, twist and tamp with just one hand and never drop
one speck of the stuff, all while striking a kitchen match on the seat of his overalls with the other hand. . . Now, is it any wonder why we all wanted to smoke? . . There was as much talent demonstrated through all of this as there would have been with a tight rope walker in a circus!

'Prince Albert' - in a can
The subject of a great smoke and many a Joke
(Telephone call to tobacco shop) "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?"
(Store keeper answers) "Why yes we do!"
(Caller replies)"Well you better let him out cause he's gonna suffocate!"

    The Telegrapher: There were many who served this role in Livingston Manor from the beginning of the railroad with names such as Andrew "Bunk" Yonker, Leonard W. Quinn, Harry W. Wright, and Ralph E. Wright. Joe Griffin also worked as a relief telegrapher, but I remember Harold Simpson as telegrapher during my time. I admired his skill and the ability to determine which of the constant messages on the wire were incoming. I now realize that there were station call letters used and this is what his ear was always tuned for. I would get as close to the telegraph devise as possible and would watch the sparks between the points as the devise chattered away. Harold would suddenly move to his chair and take the form and transcribe a message. Once I saw him take a message, fold it in such a way, fasten it on a 'Y' shaped pole and as the oncoming train came into view, Harold stood along side the tracks where a trainman's outstretched arm ever so precisely took it from the pole as the train that hardly slowed down and passed by. I wondered what was in that message? . . Perhaps a warning, "Cow on the tracks at Parksville!" Or, maybe a message from the Engineer's Wife, "Bring home a quart of milk for the baby!"

    Other Goods by Rail: The history of the O&W Railroad reflects much of the prosperity of the system and our area coming from not only moving people and their personal belongings, but the continuous shipments of milk, dairy and farm products. Of course there were many dairy farmers in our home area, of which there are very few today in comparison. Hoags farm in Livingston Manor grew great quantities of cauliflower. There were workers hired not only to cultivate the product but they were also needed as the cauliflower had to be tied at a certain point in its growth. Most if not all our local businesses depended more or less on the O&W for timely deliveries and shipments of the products they purchased or sold. The advent of electricity and LP gas almost completely wiped out the ice industry where men harvested blocks of ice from mountain ponds and lakes to fill local ice houses at the boarding houses as well as pack train cars destined for New York City. Even saw dust had important purposes in those times, as it was used to insulate the ice from the warmer outside air. Other shipments being made to and from our area every day and night were many. These included lumber and wood products, building supplies such wall insulation board, asphalt shingles, roofing felt, cement. Metal products including cast iron goods, pipe, fittings, and valves. There were also flue linings for masonry chimneys. Electrical supplies consisting of wire, switches, lamps transformers and transformer oil. Food stuff such as pot cheese corn, oats, scratch feed, flour, coffee and tea, and even ammunition for , hunting and target practice. And the list goes on; glass, mineral rock wool, fire hydrants, electric pumps and adjustable posts. Jacks, burlap bags, burial cases, drug store supplies, clothes lines, pulleys and clothes pins, and children's carts, Blue Chestnut coal, fuel oil and kerosene, wood products, industrial supplies and materials. Through the years more and more affordable motor cars were being built and thus became available for the masses then ever before. Some came in several sections (see image to the right.) Ford made the Model 'T' so that part of the actual shipping crate was designed to fit into the floor board of the finished assembly. The Model 'T' came frame, wheels, motor and gas tank assembled. The rest was done at the dealer. This was perhaps the first real dealer prep!. . .Farm tractors came in by rail also and I can remember very clearly watching the new Ford 'N' model farm tractors as they were being unloaded from a box car behind our house and then driven across town and through Main street to the Liberty Tractor Co. Above left: Model "T" Fords at Sturdevants Garage, Livingston Manor, NY around 1913.

    Bowling pins, ball bats and table legs: Livingston Manor was just one of the many towns or villages that was greatly involved in the wood chemical industry. This was one of the leading sources of employment in the area for many years before, during and after the O&W. G.H Treyz & Company whose offices were in Binghamton NY owned acid factories in Livingston Manor as well as several others in the surrounding area. Treyz manufactured acetate of lime, wood alcohol, charcoal, etc. There was a large oil tank located nearby the tracks that Treyz & Co owned and after the oil was delivered by the railroad it was stored in the tank and transported to the factory more than a quarter mile by other means. After Treyz & Company closed its Manor factory the oil tank became the property of a fuel vendor in the Manor.
Another great industry which caused impact on the area were the tanneries. These also proceeded the O&W but were responsible for harvesting most of the hemlock trees which were the source of the bark which produced tannic acid which was vital in the tanning process. In DeBruce, near Livingston Manor, was the tannery built and operated by Stoddard Hammond and a partner. This was one of, if not the largest, producing tanneries in the country. Records show that hides were imported from Argentina and processed at DeBruce. In one year alone 60,000 hides were processed and this factory along with others in the area were responsible for tanning the greater amount of foot leather for the Union Army Soldiers who fought in the Civil War. This was all prior to the O&W, however, but the railway did in fact move great amounts of wood products thereafter. At one point there was even consideration to build a siding off the main line at Livingston Manor to the Treyz & Company factory but this never developed. The O&W tracks did in fact run next to the acid factory located at Hazel, which was between Livingston Manor and Roscoe and this acid factory was still in operation after the end of World War II. I remember very clearly the charcoal plant near the O&W tracks in Cooks Falls further west of Roscoe.

    One of the greatest construction projects of all time in this area was the building of the New York City aqueduct and water supply system. There was a cement storage silo located behind our house and across the tracks in the Manor. The cement would be delivered in train cars and the workmen would use a creeper bar to move each car into position as the dry cement was transferred into the silo. Later it was loaded onto tractor trailers and taken to the shaft sites of which there were quite a few nearby. Elevator shafts, of which I was familiar, ran 700 to 1100 feet straight down. Lots of major machinery and equipment, supplies and materials were being delivered via the O&W to support these water projects. As I was growing up, I would hear the sounds of Sherwood's Mill. The Sherwood family name was long established in the wood turning and finishing industry. In the companies early years furniture legs were produced and for a time Spalding Ball Bats were manufactured in Livingston Manor. The Original plant owned by John (Jack) Sherwood which was located on Sherwood's Island burned. Sherwood relocated and built a new plant and it was here that ten pins, for bowling, were produced. There were various accountings of the numbers of pins produced but it was always in the thousands per day. The familiar tall smoke stack that towered over the mill was painted with a bright red crown the same as on top of the bowling pins made there.

Comments on this article can be sent to Wayne G. Levitt wlevitt@peoplepc.com

Finished and un-finished Ten-pins from Sherwood's Mill at Livingston Manor.