Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1858-11-19
GAME NO. /. Continuation }
Black lN.l
Adjourned till Saturday evening.
Railroad Engine on its TraVels-The Most
Remarkable Leaps on Record!

A Railroad Engine on its TraVels-The Mos
Remarkable Leaps on Record!
One of the most remarkable incidents which
we have been called upon to record Of late, oc
CURED at the depot of the Little Miami Railroad
yesterday morning, about six o'clock. 1t Ger
tainly has no fellow, in all its details, in Rail
road annals. The facts connected with it are
as follows:
About fifteen minutes before six O'Clock, the
engine d" W ashington," belonging to the Mari.
eta and Cincinnati road, started down the track
some half or three quarters of mile, for the
purpose of bringing the empty cars to the depot
preparatory to making up the 6:l5 train, the
engine being under the control OF a man en-
ployed about the yard, and not the regular en-
gineer. About half mile from the depot, the
man in charge discovered an engine of the Lit
tie Miami road backing down to the depot fo1
the purpose of taking out the morning train for
Cleveland. Fearing a collision, the person in
charge of the Marietta engine reversed, and
| jumped from the machine. a minute after, the
two engines came together, when the impetus
| given to the Marietta engine, together with the
force of the reversed power, started it towards
the depot with the velocity Of rocket. The
| down grade gave it additional headway, and it
| bounded along the track like fiend incarnate,
belching forth fire and smoke to the distance of
twenty or thirty feet from the track, and lit
orally bounding from the iron rails, threatening
destruction to every thing that impeded its
progress. Experienced judges of the speed of
railway trains, who saw this engine on its light
ming travels, say that it could not have been GO
ing at a less rate than seventy-five to one hen
dred miles an hour Its final bringing up
| shows that their calculations could not have
been far out of the way.
Upon the track in the depot the morning
train, consisting of some four or five cars, had
been madeup, and about one hundred passen-
gers had already taken their seats. On came
the engine with the speed of a destructive
whirlwind, directly upon the track leading to
the train, until within about four or five rods
of the depot, when the fortunate accidental
change of a switch drove it upon the other
track. Almost before the persons standing by
could realize that an engine had entered one
end of the depot, the iron steed had bounded
through the entire length, demolished an eigh-
inch brick toaH, timOers and all, at the rear,
leaped across two road tracks-one about ten
feet below the other-without touching either,
and embedded itself in huge pile of coal in
the yard of J. Cochnower The distance leap
ed from the wall of the depot to the landing of
the engine, could not have been less than seq
entgfre feet! All this distance, through the
demolished wall of the depot, it dragged the
tender loaded with wood, without breaking the
couplings.
But for the fortunate change in the switch,
which threw the engine upen the opposite track |
to that on which the Cleveland train was stand
ing, the loss of life must have been terrible. |
The force which rent a brick wall eighteen |
inches thick, for a circle of fifteen OF twenty |
feet, would have smashed the cars upon the
track into fragments, and fearful destruction
of life and limb must have followed. Had the
person in charge OF the engine not been fright
ened and jumped when he reversed the machin-
cry, the accident would have been avoided, and
the fact enforces the necessity of permitting
none but experienced men to handle machinery
which possesses so much power. The regular en-
gineer would have known that he was running
upon the time which belonged to the Cleveland
train, and would not have started out.
Christopher Bonney, car cleaner at the
depot, was also on the Washington, but jumped
off after the engine got under good headway,
and was very badly injured He was the only
person who was hurt Tue engine and tender
were damaged to the extent of some four or
five thousand dollars - Cincinnati Gazette.