Tag: trains

…for the next time you see one of those long BNSF freight trains chugging along the tracks. Whether you see one of those BNSF freight trains in Los Angeles. Or in New York City. Or in Dallas. Or in Chicago. The next time you see one of those BNSF freight trains, you can think about a town located along the Flint Hills Scenic Byway in Chase County, Kansas. You can think about Strong City. Population, 388.

Five years after the Kansas Territory was first organized… Two years prior to Kansas becoming our 34th U.S. State…Chase County, Kansas was born. That year? 1859.

Twenty-two years after that – in 1881 – the railroad in the United States entered Chase County, Kansas. The Chase County town which was the benefactor of this rail extension in Kansas had been Cottonwood. 

And in Cottonwood, a new train station was built. That new train station – built in 1881 in Cottonwood – became, the Cottonwood Station. 

The very next year – in 1882 – the town of Cottonwood would change its name. Becoming, Strong. Later becoming, Strong City. 

Our Strong City name took hold much, much later. Sixty-three years later, to be precise. In 1945.

Strong City…

Yet, let’s go back to the beginning of it all. To the very beginning of Strong City’s – then, Strong’s – imprint on U.S. rail. 

The beginning, which brings us to a New Englander. A New Englander, who was born in Vermont. A New Englander by the name of William Barlow Strong. W.B. Strong. As W.B. Strong is where our Strong City-BNSF connection begins. 

W.B. Strong. Our namesake for Strong. Our namesake for Strong City. W.B. Strong. W.B.Strong, the man on whom a petition had been set forth to change a Chase County town’s name. From Cottonwood to Strong.

When that railroad –  the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway – was extended into Cottonwood in 1881, W.B. Strong served as president at Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

The year Cottonwood Station first opened- in 1881 – would be the same year W.B. Strong took over the reins at Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. As president. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. ATSF, for short.

Expanding on from the opening of that Cottonwood Station in 1881, under W.B. Strong’s leadership, ATSF significantly grew its train routes. To cover 7,000 miles. 7,000 miles of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway routes. Throughout the United States.

Headed by W.B. Strong, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway went on to become part of what is today the largest railroad in the United States. ATSF’s growth spurt coincided with the opening of that Cottonwood Station. In our Chase County town that would go on to bear W.B. Strong’s name. In Cottonwood. Later becoming, Strong. Later becoming, Strong City. 

Strong City. The Chase County town named after our railroad executive, W.B. Strong.

Whenever we see a freight train, we no doubt will see the letters “BNSF” on those freight cars. And on those, once-steam, now diesel or electric, engines. BNSF is our modern-day evolution for Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway went on to merge with Burlington Northern Railroad in 1995. Out of this merger, we had, Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway. 

Later becoming, simply, BNSF.

The prevalence of those BNSF freight trains we see throughout the United States…transporting goods from the West Coast to the East Coast. From the Midwest into Canada. From the Midwest into Mexico. The prevalence of those BNSF freight trains we see…we see those BNSF freight trains, arguably, as the modern day result of the expansion-oriented mindset which had been espoused by the man whose name is forever linked to our Chase County town. W.B. Strong. Our namesake, for Strong City. 

In the late 19th Century, then-Cottonwood, later becoming Strong and later still, becoming Strong City, had a population of, between, a few hundred to one thousand people. Strong City’s population today is just about where it had been in its earliest days. A few hundred people.

Just as our Strong City forefather – W.B. Strong – laid the late 19th Century “tracks” for a company which would go to become the largest rail company in the United States – with over 32,000 miles of track, across 28 U.S. States – Strong City would proceed to make a second notable contribution to the freight-by-rail system we now have. 

Beginning in the late-19th Century, Strong quarries supplied large quantities of the stone which had been used for U.S. railway expansion. While at the same time, Strong stonemasons handled a good deal of the stone-work which had been necessary in order for that that late-19th Century/early-20th Century rail expansion to take place. 

While Strong stonemasons performed according to their names – as stonemasons, handling stone-work for railroads – Strong stonemasons extended their contributions to the growth of late-19th Century/early-20th Century rail in the U.S. beyond their stone-work. In fact, Strong stonemasons went on to enter into numerous phases of late-19th Century/early-20th Century railroad construction. Far beyond stone-work.

The laying of track. Building the bridges on which track was laid. Building train stations. Roadhouses. 

Each being one such category of railroad construction that Strong stonemasons placed their signatures upon.

So…our Chase County town of 300-or-so residents, located a little less than a two hour’s drive west of Kansas City. Our Chase County town can be thought of whenever we do see one of those BNSF freight trains.

W.B. Strong. Strong. Later becoming, Strong City. Strong stonemasons. United States rail. BNSF. 

For me, it’s quite difficult, moreso, impossible, to see a freight train and to not think about those picturesque drives I’ve taken, oh so many, many times, along Highway 177 in Kansas. Onto Main Street. Along the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway. Into…Strong City.

Strong City. Our Chase County town of 300-or-so people which has left its not so-little-at-all “Strong City signature” – in more ways than one – on U.S.cargo, shipped by rail. 

The story behind the iconic name linked to one four square mile section within Newark’s East Ward just east of Penn Station is somewhat argumentative.

While it is somewhat subjective how this Newark neighborhood became The Ironbound, no argument can be made that the origin for this name we are referring to – The Ironbound – came about as a result of what was going on in this Newark neighborhood in the early part of the 19th Century. 

Newark was emerging as one of the preeminent United States manufacturing centers. Trains. Lots of trains. Freight trains. Lots of freight trains. Train tracks. Lots of train tracks. And within that network of Newark train tracks is where we find our origin for “The Ironbound” name.

Newark was transitioning away from being an agricultural economy. To its new identity. As an economy built around heavy industry. Freight trains played a major role in the success of Newark’s economic transition. 

By the 1830’s, rail had become the most efficient way to transport the finished manufactured goods which were being made in Newark to outside markets. Where they could then be sold.  

During the first half of the 19th century – with this advent of rail – what once had been a section of the city, strewn with swamps and farms, was going through a seismic change. It was becoming a neighborhood dominated by heavy industry. The Ironbound. Surrounded by trains tracks. Train tracks everywhere. Hence, the origin for our name, “The Ironbound.” Train tracks. Lots and lots of train tracks. In this four square mile Newark neighborhood. The Ironbound.

There is an alternative point-of-beginning for the name “The Ironbound.” One attributed not to this network of train tracks in Newark’s East Ward. But rather, to the preeminence of metalworking, forges and foundries found in The Ironbound in the mid-19th Century.

A portion of the reasoning for linking the origin of The Ironbound name to 19th Century metalworking – rather than (primarily) to rail – could be found in knowing that train tracks are made of steel. Not iron. But, a caveat…

It was in the mid-19th Century – after The Ironbound already began to transition from farming to heavy industry – that, for the very first time, steel rails could even be thought of as being used as a possible replacement for the iron rails which were always used (up until that time) to lay tracks. 

The first steel rails – ever used – were laid in Britain. In 1857. 1857…twenty-one years after Newark Broad Street Station opened. As Newark’s first freight station. 

So, when those 19th Century trains roared into – and out of – The Ironbound, those 19th Century tracks the trains rode on were made of iron. Not steel. Hence, The Ironbound.

For those who believe the origin for The Ironbound name is based upon foundries…Seth Boyden.

Seth Boyden opened the first malleable iron foundry in the United States which was capable of producing the buckles and the harnesses which, when used together, then made up the two primary ingredients for the carriage industry. Boyden’s Newark’s foundry was the Malleable Cast Iron Foundry and Condit. The Malleable Foundry and Condit was established in The Ironbound. On Orange Street.

Balbach and Sons Refining and Smelting Company – once the second largest metal processing enterprise in the United States – was located where one now finds Riverbank Park in The Ironbound. 

The Oscar Barnet Foundry was located on McWhorter Street in The Ironbound. 

Foundries, metalworking and forges. Yet morseso than the foundries which once flourished in The Ironbound, The Ironbound name is most visibly seen today when you drive by 91 Bay Avenue – Oak Island Yard.

Opened in 1903, just about one thousand train cars travel through Oak Island Yard in The Ironbound…to this day.

The Ironbound name? It was those train tracks in The Ironbound. Those iron train tracks.