
City - NY - Avenue of death 1910

by Mike Savad
Title
City - NY - Avenue of death 1910
Artist
Mike Savad
Medium
Photograph - Colorized Photo
Description
Colorized photo from 1910
Original Title: Railroad on 11th Ave., N. Y. City
Photographer: Bain Publishing
Location: 277 10th Ave, NY
Welcome to the Avenue of Death, ironically located in Hell's Kitchen, NY. On 10th and 11th Avenues, a train ran down the street. It moved only 5 miles an hour, but even at that speed, it ran people over. There was a person on the back of the train I guess as a look out, and a horseman in the front. They were known as the "Tenth Avenue Cowboy", or "West Side Cowboys". They would carry a red flag by day, and a red lantern by night to warn people, especially out of town people, that a train will be coming.
If you look closely, for some reason there are a lot more children on this block than any place else. They were often the victims. In 1909, the Bureau of Municipal Research claimed that since 1852, the trains killed 436 people, half of which may have been children. And for this reason this area was called "Death Avenue".
You'll also notice something funny about this train, it doesn't look like a train. It was designed to look like a streetcar so it wouldn't scare the horses. The shape helps stifle the noise, and sparks that came out. It was painted to look like one as well. They were known as a Steam Dummy, a Dummy Engine, or a Dummy Boy. Under the hood there was a two-truck shay 0-6-0; Class B-11, with a type of geared power system. Normally this model of train was used in the logging and industrial operations, as it could handle sharp curves and steep grades.
Eventually they replaced this train with the High Line, and let people get killed in more normal ways.
Uploaded
April 6th, 2021
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Linaji Creating
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