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was decorated with flags and a number of the residents in the vicinity of the starting point hung out flags and cheered the departure. The train was made up of new cars and a new engine, named Alfred C. Chapin, all being labeled Union Elevated Railroad. Master Mechanic of the Road Daniel Williams had charge of the locomotive and he was assisted in operating the train by conductors G.H. Brigden, P.J. Collins and E. Goodwin, all of whom were resplendent in gold braid, brass buttons and boutonnieres of roses.
(skip list of those on board)
The train almost immediately after leaving the station went a speed nearly equal, to that at which trains on the elevated roads ordinarily run. It was kept up till the stopping place at Van Sicklen avenue was reached. The running was smooth and comfortable but for the continuous roaring sound, due doubtless to the rigidity of the new road bed and the rolling stock. At various points the waving of flags greeted the approach of the train and people thrust their heads out of windows and
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craned them from the sidewalks to get a view of the flying cars. At the corner of Washington avenue the flag idea was supplemented by a hospitable householder with several mottoes drawn on cardboard, "Welcome Rapid Transit."
The train turned into Grand Avenue at 11:13 and about seven minutes later reached the junction of Broadway and Lexington avenue. The route thence to Fulton and the Van Sicklen avenue station was gone over in about six minutes making the total time of the trip uptown twenty-one minutes. At the Van Sicklen avenue station a stop of several minutes was made and the return trip begun. The entire distance gone over, about seven miles each way was traversed in forty minutes, the down trip requiring a somewhat shorter time than was consumed going up.
The train was run up Adams street past the station on the down bound track, and then switched over into position from which it originally started. Before leaving the cars the guests were invited to meet at the Clarendon Hotel for refreshments."
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