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(rshsdepot) More on the Dolly Varden train (Sputen Duyvil-Tubby Hook-Fort Washington-Carmansville-)

I realize by the amazing response that the Dolly Varden history was an enormously popular topic!  (I hadn't even mentioned the once popular Dolly Varden hat)

So here is more history on that west side local passenger train...I indeed did find more children being killed by the Dolly Varden over the years..

And this in 1913: 10/19/1913 saw a freight, an extra on the Harlem Division going from 72nd Street to Melrose station derailed on a curve in the deep cut east of Spuyten Duyvil disrupting through trains to Grand Central as both tracks were blocked for 3 hours...5:30 AM saw the accident Trains from Chicago, Buffalo, Montreal, Toronto and St Louis had to be diverted down the west side line to drop off passengers at the freight stations at West 130th and West 42nd Streets...

"The tracks over which the incoming through trains took their passengers downtown are those used exclusively by freight trains and the 'Dolly Varden' passenger train that is run between Spuyten Duyvil and West Thirtieth Street for the purpose of protecting a franchise."

Some passengers stayed on the through trains rather than get off at 42nd and 12th Avenue or at 130th. After the tracks were cleared the "Fast Mail" from St Louis and "The Beaver" from Toronto were taken back to Spuyten Duyvil and into Grand Central Terminal.. This accident took place on Sunday or it would have been a mess, it says...

It said similar accidents had caused the same situation in 1910 and 1907.

It was stated that since the Hudson River road was built it had seldom been used by through passenger trains....

From a 1958 letter:
"There was a Depot Lane from Broadway to a railroad station on the NYC&HRRR where the George Washington Bridge is today"

A June 25, 1952 Times article on retiring NY Central  on the retirement of Corporate Secretary Joseph M. Mahoney. 52 years with the NY Central, he was living in rural Manhattanville as a boy. He reminisced. "You got downtown from what is now 131st Street on the old Dolly Varden, a two-car train with steam locomotive that stopped at hamlets along the way--Spuyten Duyvil, Tubby Hook, Fort Washington, Carmansville-all paved now and hidden by towering apartment buildings--and down the west side to Thirtieth Street.

In Manhattanville as a boy he remembered going to the local farmer to get fresh warm milk from the cow...

A 1901 article on floods mentions that "the railroad cut of what is known as the 'Dolly Varden' line, which runs from the Melrose yards of the New York Central Railroad to the Oak Point yards of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, was completely flooded during the morning, there being at least four feet of water in the cut at One Hundred and Fifty-Sixth and Brook Avenue."

The Dolly Varden train already had this name in 1882. In a letter someone suggests a way to avoid accidents. Trains would jump the curves between Spuyten Duyvil and Kingsbridge (near Broadway), the worst curves on the main line. To avoid this he proposed the NY Central build a branch line from Kingsbridge directly up to the Ludlow property near Yonkers...he says the old line could be used still for freight and the Dolly Varden trains....Did they fix these curves after the Harlem River was canalized?



On 12/1/1893, The Dolly Varden House at Blue Point, Long Island burned down. It was abandoned for years and thought to be haunted by a man that had committed suicide there. "The house was owned by Edward E. Edwards of Patchogue. He intended to fix the place up, and had engaged twenty-five Italians for that purpose. The loss is estimated at $4,000."

In 1890, there was a strike. I like this passage:
"At 9 o'clock last night, while dummy Engine No. 9 was on its way with fourteen freight cars from St. John's Park to the station, it was found that the cars had been uncoupled. When an attempt was made to couple the cars a crowd of several hundred idlers and strikers threw missiles at the green train hands."


This is August 12, 1890 Times and here is the Dolly Varden mention:
The day before scabs had moved the first trains out of 30th Street Yards north through 65th Street yards. 2 freight trains. One passenger train came through these yards, the "Dolly Varden" bound for Spuyten Duyvil (I assume it may have used the same swing bridge as is there today, which is cool, as cool as the steam dummy on Hudson Street), "consisting of Engine No. 829 and three passenger coaches. This train passed through the yard at 4:15 P.M. but the 'passengers' consisted of detectives, railroad officials, and reporters."

What I like best is they call this a westbound passenger train. Even as the only direction this local would make is NNE to Spuyten Duyvil, the main line not truly turning west until about Albany...


A 1901 Fishing article recommends taking the Dolly Varden trains of the New York Central to Fort Washington to catch snapper, or taking it to Spuyten Duyvil where the snapper were snapping near the draw bridge.

9/16/1904 Times report:
"DOLLY VARDEN" HITS TEAM
That's the Central's River Front "Express"--Driver and Horses Hurt.

  The "Dolly Varden," the New York Central's well-known North River front passenger "express," played havoc with a driver of a truck and his team of horses last night at the One Hundred and thirty-third Street and Twelfth Avenue crossing.
 "Thomas Duffy of 59 Manhattan Street was driving toward the river and thought he had plenty of time to get across ahead of the train. But the "Dolly Varden" is speedy and hit his team and wagon full. Duffy was thrown into the air. The horses were carried on the pilot, with the heavy truck, scattering its load along the tracks, hanging over on the other side of the locomotive. The engineer put on his emergency brakes, but before the train was stopped the wagon had been smashed against a freight car with force enough to break part of the car. The wagon was demolished.
  Duffy had a right kneecap broken and was badly bruised.."

On October 10, 1903 the Dolly Varden almost ended up in the Hudson River.
FLOOD CAUSED CENTRAL WRECK
Spreading Rails Nearly Send Passenger Train Into the Hudson--Engineer Prevents Disaster.

  Spreading rails, caused by an undermined roadbed, were responsible for an accident that almost precipitated the "Dolly Varden"  express into the Hudson River yesterday afternoon. Engineer John Cummings remained at his post and kept the train from taking the plunge by applying the brakes and shutting off the steam. As it was the engine left the rails and did not stop until it hung half way over the embankment of rocks at the foot of West One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Street.
  The wrecked train's run was on the Hudson Division of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad to Yonkers. At One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street, where the cliffs are high above the tracks, the water that has poured over them incessantly for two days had undermined the roadbed. the danger was not perceptible on the surface, however, but as the engine sped over the weak spot the ground gave away and the rails spread. there was a crash, and the engine lunged to the left, plowing up the outside rails and making straight for the river.
  Cummings had been thrown violently against the lever when the engine first left the rails. A deep wound was cut in his right side, but he stuck to his post. The fireman had leaped from the cab at the first sign of danger and landed among the rocks on the shore unhurt. the impetus of the engine was sufficient to send it clear across the outside rails and almost over the embankment. It hung on the very edge, having dragged the first car along with it.
  Cummings, overcome with the pain of his wound and the loss of blood, was found unconscious in the cab by Policeman Grady of the West One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street Station. In the meantime there was a panic among the fifty passengers, many of whom were women returning from shopping. All were thrown headlong and many were cut by glass from the shattered windows....

  The train name is thought to be because of the fashion of the women who rid this train, the popular style at the time being the Dolly Varden. To see this style look at the frontispiece to the "Dolly Varden Quadrille" a waltz-gallop-Scottish-polka-march song:
http://www.corsetsandcrinolines.com/Tidbits/dollyvarden.jpg
The ladies in the artwork are wearing Dolly Varden styles..by the turn of the century the style was used in drama and literature to portray a daffy girl. The hats were a popular style for the longest time of any of the clothes.

I am sure you want more, sorry...





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