My great grandfather, James Regan, was supposedly crushed between two cars when he was coupling them about 1897. He and his wife, Elizabeth, and their daughter, Eleanor Mae, lived in New York City at the time. I've never been able to find a death certificate for him. I have no idea what railroad he worked for. James Regan was a common name in NYC about that time. At 12:15 AM 3/11/2010, you wrote: >And as awful as Elias' tragedy was, it wasn't uncommon, even among railway >workers. I have a great-granduncle from PJ who worked for the Erie in NJ. >He was coupling cars together when he was crushed between two of them at >age 22. > >Brakemen were especially vulnerable. They used to jump from the top of one >car to another to manually set brakes on each one while the train was >moving - and they did it in the dark, rain, wind, ice storms, etc. Many >fell to their deaths under the train wheels. > >Another group with many fatalities were track-walkers. These employees >would walk the tracks in their assigned sections to check on >conditions...in the dark with only a small flickering lantern. They were >struck by trains when they were caught unawares and were unseen by the >engineers. > >Railroading was a rugged job all the way around, whether the employee >scouted routes, leveled grades with shovels, built trestles over gorges, >worked as a brakeman, or simply happened to ride a train during a bad >derailment.

Hi all: I have not been following this discussion, so forgive me if this has been posted, but this post reminded me of a post made on the Brooklyn list last year: ------------------------------------- All aboard! In a recent online discussion, family searchers sought employment records for ancestors who worked for the railroad and early subways. I found a book, in the public domain, that is a little gold mine for family names in Canal and Railroad Reports! Train lines are not limited to New York, but include nearby areas in New Jersey, upstate New York, and other Eastern U.S. areas. Although financial records and reports are the title, names and specifics about injured employees are listed month by month, within these annual reports. At times it is indicated that such employees died from injuries sustained at work, but with the limitations of medicine in that era, a serious injury, such as a loss of a limb, may hint at in inevitable, forthcoming death. Another point is that if a NYC resident worked on a NJ line, he may have died there. Ah ha! No wonder you couldn't locate a death certificate via the NYC German or Italian Genealogy transcription projects. If you've been unlucky finding a death certificate for a male ancestor, I recommend that you search this site at http://tinyurl.com/yjhz8je. You may also be interested in searching the alphabetized biographies of Railway Officials from 1906, at http://www.onlinebiographies.info/railroad/index.htm Source: The Biographical Directory of the Railway Officials of America Edition of 1906 Edited and compiled by T. Addison Busbey Associate Editor The Railway Age. Chicago 1906 On a link to the homepage of The Western New York Railway Archive, the anonymous author states that genealogical queries for personnel files were often lost or destroyed. SEE: http://wnyrails.org/index.htm Before you leave this site, check out the map of railway lines stretched like spaghetti across northern NYS. Plus, there are some valuable links, directly below the title. For genealogical records, the recommendation is to contact the U.S. RailroadRetirement Board at http://www.rrb.gov/mep/genealogy.asp This should be enough homework to keep you railroad buffs busy for a week! Full steam ahead! Barb NYC Researcher ------------------------------ Good luck! Bryan Healy On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 9:05 PM, Bill & Judy Cuyle <bjcuyle@lightlink.com>wrote: > My great grandfather, James Regan, was supposedly crushed between two cars > when he was coupling them about 1897. He and his wife, Elizabeth, and their > daughter, Eleanor Mae, lived in New York City at the time. I've never been > able to find a death certificate for him. I have no idea what railroad he > worked for. James Regan was a common name in NYC about that time. > > At 12:15 AM 3/11/2010, you wrote: > > >And as awful as Elias' tragedy was, it wasn't uncommon, even among railway > >workers. I have a great-granduncle from PJ who worked for the Erie in NJ. > >He was coupling cars together when he was crushed between two of them at > >age 22. > > > >Brakemen were especially vulnerable. They used to jump from the top of one > >car to another to manually set brakes on each one while the train was > >moving - and they did it in the dark, rain, wind, ice storms, etc. Many > >fell to their deaths under the train wheels. > > > >Another group with many fatalities were track-walkers. These employees > >would walk the tracks in their assigned sections to check on > >conditions...in the dark with only a small flickering lantern. They were > >struck by trains when they were caught unawares and were unseen by the > >engineers. > > > >Railroading was a rugged job all the way around, whether the employee > >scouted routes, leveled grades with shovels, built trestles over gorges, > >worked as a brakeman, or simply happened to ride a train during a bad > >derailment. > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYORANGE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >