Address: 23 Prescott Place
Old Address: 3 Park Place
Other names: Campbell Cottage (1912), Jackson Cottage (1928); DIS
Year built:
Other information:
The Guild News, March 1941
COTTAGE CALLS
They're just the right number to start a baseball team, they'll tell you. They are all members of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. They have tuberculosis, and are taking the cure in Saranac Lake.
Their former jobs, they say, were more routine. Nothing ever happened. There was, of course, a little circumstance in which one of them, a flagman, was knocked off the rear of a Delaware and Hudson sleeper, on the run from Auburn to Binghamton.
The train, backing, simply ran over him and pinioned his body underneath. Cotter pins and other gear stripped every stitch of clothing from him. He broke both shoulders, both arms and all his ribs. He spent 14 months in the Fox Hospital, at Oneonta. But, of course nothing ever happens to a trainman.
What's the most common accident on a railroad? they were asked. One volunteered, "Why, an ordinary derailment, I suppose," an ordinary derailment, apparently, being symptomatic of the quiet life.
They don't mind talking shop. But the outsider is not likely to glean much from their conversation until he's mastered their idiom.
The "brains" for example is neither a thinking apparatus, nor the head of a gang of kidnappers. He's the conductor. The engineer is a "hoghead"; the fireman, "tallow pot"; officials, "brass hats"; car inspectors, "car knockers"; and a rail walker is known as a "gandy dancer."
The trainman himself is called a "shack," but if he's a beginner, he's designated as a "student." A yard master is a "fixed signal"; and the caboose is the "hack." If you ever want a trainman to cut a freight car off, you simply tell him to "hit the deck."
In this slang, they spin some lively tales of wrecks, fires and daily emergencies, in which their skill and fast thinking have played a large part in averting those gruesome accidents which make headlines in newspapers throughout the country.
To a man they are proud of their financial independence in Saranac Lake. Three percent of all their earnings, paid into the Brotherhood, have assured them of care here without reliance on help from their families or others.
They've had varied, and in some cases, long experience with the roads on which they've worked. One of them who has been with the New York, New Haven and Hartford, entered the service at 14. He lied about his age, of course. It was only straightened out 35 years later when he was eligible for a pension.
Four of the nine live at 58 Riverside Drive. . . .
Three others make their home at [illegible] Park Place. One is Thomas E. O'Brien who has been a trainman for 23 years. He's been with the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, the West Shore and the Staten Island Rapid Transit, of the Baltimore and Ohio. He's been in Saranac Lake for a little over a year, and hopes to go home to Staten Island this summer.
Arthur Driscoll is the flagman who thinks nothing much has happened when trains run over him. He's worked for the Erie and for the Delaware and Hudson for more than 20 years. His home is in Binghamton, and Saranac Lake is an old story to him. He used to umpire ball games here in the days of D[?] Sullivan's teams in the 1920's.
Martin Lyons is the trainman who started his career at 14. He has cured here for a year, and counts himself one of the lucky ones, because Mrs. Lyons is temporarily making her home here, too. They reside in Quincy, Mass.
Harry Palmer lives at 3 Park Place. The others [see 58 Riverside Drive] believe he tops them in seniority of service, but they're not quite sure. He's worked for the New York, New Haven and Hartford for nearly 40 years. He came here from Portchester three months ago.
Lester Pete, of Wellsville, N.Y., completes the roster. He was with the Erie Railroad, retiring 15 years ago, after 23 years' service. He is staying at 20 River Street.
Robert Clements, who was one of their number until a short time ago, when he was well enough to return to New York, was interested in handicraft, and was a student at the Guild.
Family men all, they are interested in getting back to their homes and jobs, but in the meantime they haven't forgotten how to laugh and spin yarns, and make the best of what they call "the cure game."#
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