The history of the first locomotives in America. From original ...

FIRST TRAINS.
road, -with only occasional sidings or turnouts here and
tl^ere dpon its route, the carriages often met upon the
way, going in opposite directions. Then would begin
a violent contest between the rival drivers, not only in
words, but sometimes resulting in blows, to determine
who should back to the siding and turn off to allow the
other to pass. In these contests not unfrequently the
passengers would take sides with their respective
drivers, and scenes of riot and pugilistic displays were
often the result of these contests, until one party or the
other would be compelled to succumb. After a while
this difficulty was somewhat diminished by the opposi-
tion parties coming to a kind of understanding that,
in meeting upon the track, the carriage containing the
lightest load should back off to 'the nearest siding ; and
finally it became a fixed rule that, whichever carriage
arrived last at the half-way post, planted between the
two sidings, should back off to allow the other to pass.
This plan, though it tended in a great measure to render
less frequent these difficulties and contests, subjected
the working of the road to much trouble and delay,
so that these private enterprises were superseded by
the company commencing the regular passenger trans-
portation system, which by that time became a source of
much importance in the traffic upon-the road, and must
be considered as the first introduction of this source of
profit upon all railroads of our time, exceeding, in many
cases, the income from the freight -department.
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