Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1866-12-20

driver viii waste his steam, and when he
comes to q hill he has scarcely enough to
drag him up. When you're in train that
goes by fits and starts, you may be sure
that there is bad driver on the engine.
That kind of driving frightens passengers
dreadful. When the train, after rafting
along, suddenly slackens speed when itain't
near station, it may be in the middle Of
tunnel; the passengers think there is dan
ger. But generally it's because the driver
has exhausted his steam.
Z" l drove the Brighten express, four or
five years before l come here, and the an
nuals that is, the passengers who had an
nual tickets-alWays said they knew when
| was on the engine, because they wasn't
/ jerked. Gentlemen used to say, az they
came on the platform, Who drives TO day
Jim Martin = And when the guard told
them yes, they said, All right and took
| their seats quite comfortable. But the
driver never gets 80 much as a shilling;
the guard comes in for all that, and he does
nothing much. Few ever think of the
driver. | dare say they think the train
| goes along of itself; yet if we didn't keep
q sharp look out, know cur duty, and do it,
| they might all go 30 smash the next mo-
ment | used to make that journey to
Brighton in fftytwo minutes The papers
said forty nine minutes, but that was COM
| ing it a little too strong. | had to watch
signals all the way, one every two miles, so
| that me and my stoker were on the stretch
all the time, doing two things at once at
tending to the engine and looking out.
| I've driven, on this line, eighty
one miles and three-quarters in eighty
4 six minutes. There's no danger in speed
! if you have good road, g good engine and
not too many coaches behind. No, we don't
call them carriages, we always call them
coaches
eyes oscillation mems danger If you
are ever in coach that oscilates much,
tell of it at the first station and get it
coupled up closer. Coaches when they're
too loose are apt to Jump, or swing off the
rails it's quite as dangerous when they're
coupled up too close. There ought to be
just space enough for the buffers to work
easy. Passengers are frightened in tunnels,
but there's less danger, n3lo, in tunnels than
anywhere else. We never enter tunnel
unless it's signalIed clear.
GA train can be stopped wonderful quick,
even when running express, il the guards
act with the driver and clap on all the
brakes promptly. Much depends upon the
guards. One brake behind is as good as
two in front. The engiue, you see, loses
weight as she burns her Goals and consumes
her water, but the coaches behind don't
alter. We have good deal of trouble with
young guards. In their anxiety to perform
their duties, they put On the brakes too
soon, so that som etimes we can scarcely
drag the train into the station; when they
grow older at it they are not so anxious,
and ont put them On soon enough. It's
no use to say, wien an accident happens,
that they did not put on the brakes in time;
they swear they did, and you can't prove
that they didn't.
+" Do | think that the tapping of the
wheels with hammer is mere ceremony?
Well, don't know exactly / should not
like to say. It's not often the chaps find
anything wrong. They may sometimes be
half asleep when train comes into eta
ton in the middle Of the night. You would
be yourself. They ought to tap the axle
box, but they don't
Many accidents take place that never
get into the papers many trains, full Of
passengers, escape being dashed to pieces
by next door to q miracle. Nobody knows
anything about it but the driver and the
stoker. | remember once, when l was
driving on the Eastern Counties Going
round curve, | suddenly ssw train COM
ing along on the same line Of rails |
clapped on the brake, but it VS. too
late, thought. Seeing the engine Almost
close upon us, | cried tc my stoker TO
jump. He jumped c1 the engine al
most before the words were cut Of my
mouth. / was just taking my hand eff the
lever to follow, when the coming train
turned off on the points, and the next in
slant the hind coach passed my engine by
shave. It was the nearest touch | ever saw.
My stoker was killed. In another half
second I should have jumped off and been
killed too. What would have become of the
train without us is more than | can tell
you. y
"There are heaps Of people run over
that no one ever hears about. One dark
night in the Black Country, me and my
mate felt something wet and warm splash
in our faces. That didn't come from the
engine, Bill said. NO. he said it's
something thick, JIM 1t was blood
That's what it was. We heard afterwards
that collier had been run over. When we
kill any Of our own chaps, we say as little
about it as possible. It's generally-most
always-their own fault. No.. we never
think Of danger ourselves. We're used to
it, you see. But we're not reckless.
don't believe there's any body of men that
takes more pride in their work than
engine drivers do. We are as proud and as
fond of our engines as if they were living
things as proud Of them as a huntsman or
a jockey is Of his horse. And engine has
almost as many ways as horse; she's
kicker, plunger, roarer, or what not, in
her way. Put stranger on to my engine,
and he wouldn't know what to do with her.
Yes; there's wonderful improvements in
engines since the last great Exhibition.
Some of them take up their water without
stopping. That's wonderful invention,
and yet as simple as A B G. There are
water troughs at certain places, lying be-
tween the rails. By moving lever you let
down the mouth of q scoop into the water,
and as you rush along, the water is forced
into the tank, at the rate of three thousand
gallons per minute.
GA engine-driver's chief anxiety is to
keep time; that's what he thinks most Of
When was driving the Brighton express,
| always felt like as if was riding race
against time / had no fear of the pace
what feared was losing way and not get
ting in to the minute. We have to give in
an account of our time when we arrive.
The company provides US with watches,
and we 60 by them. Before starting on
journey, we pass through room to be in
spected. That's to see If we are sober
But they don't say nothing to us, and man
who was little gone might pass easy. Eve
known stoker that had passes the inspec-
ton, come on to the engine as drunk as a
AY, flop down among the COAX and sleen