Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-04-24
The Heroes of the Locomotive
APpreciaIEve Tribute TO Rail
road Engineers,


road Engineers.
President, Tuttle, of Wabash College. |
in the Neoo York Independents thu
celebrates the merits of a class of every |
1ay heroes, whose watchful guardianship,
though absolutely necessary to the person |
al safety of every individual who sets fool
on a railroad train, is not always remem
bered .- ~
1t may be an admission of weakness, and |
yet confess to high admiration of
class of men to whom a vast burden of re-
sponsibility in the matter of human life l. |
intrusted. l refer to our rail; |
road engineers. The locomotive in itself |
is marvel of ingenuity and power. Com
pact, perfect in form and adaptation, indisi |
peDsable to the wants of civilization, it is /
one of the finest instruments. The man /
who controls those thirty tons of organized |
iron which we call a locomotive must Sc |
cure both self-respect and self-confidence. |
i have sometimes stood beside the track |
when train has come flying along, and |
have observed with boundless admiration |
the man on whose vigilance, skill and pluck. |
the safety of the train so largely depended. |
His left hand on the lever, his right on the
reversing leyer-if that be its name-his |
body bent forward eagerly, and his eyes
keenly scrutiniZing the track ahead, lest the
tremendous momentum OF his train, COM
ing in contact with some obstacle, should
wreck. How, now, can man be weighed
down with such responsibility and not
be more stronger and more self-reliant
man?
Some years ago, with party, it was my
fortune to be on the Erie railway when the
engineers engaged in general strike. /
sided with the engineers, believing them to
be wronged. At the Susquehanna station
we found large body of engineers, more
than had ever seen together at one time.
They were not noisy, nor braggart, not tip
sey !; but 1 then said, what 1 now believe,
that they were the finest body of operatives
that l ever saw. Intelligent, bold, strong.
each the manager OF such a wonderful ma
chine, they found at least one ardent ad-
mirer that day.
Some of the most remarkable exhibitions
of courage have been made by men Of this
class. A few years ago my friend Osborne.
who has driven the locomotive for the mail
train on the Morris 81 Essex railroad tor
twenty years at least, with faultless faith
fulness, was once delayed with snow on the
track for several hours, but received eXplic-
it orders from the observation-disclosures that
splendid officer who has lately resigned his
office on that road-..to 60 ahead" for the
road was clear, no other train was on the
track. After satisfying himself that he had
not misunderstood the order, he left the
summit on steep dOwngrade, and, in
rounding sharp curve, came on g train
that was ascending the same grade under
iull head of steam. In an instant he whiS-
tiled down his brakes and reversed his en-
gine. The noble thing, under such tre-
mendous strain, as if fully aware of the
danger, obeyed, and threw itself back t.
avert the catastrophe. Meanwhile, the other
engineer had done the same thing with his
locomotive; but it was possible only to
modify the shock. ..-s -st sy-efre-rsr-e
Together rushed these two painting and
reluctant giants, their joint weights not
less than sixty tons, With the gathered mo-
-mentum of the following trains. They
rose like two furious anima in fight,
standing on ends, and in Il CIice the two
splendid machines were a wreck. The cars
behind them were also badly crushed. Os-
borne did not leap from his engine, but,
never moving his hands from the lever
which controlled it, he stood as resOlute as
rock at his post until the shock came. and
then, quick as thought, adjusted his valves
to allow the steam to escape without an
explosion. Our war can furnish no clearer
proof of the finest courage than that. e =
At the crossing of the Morris and Essex
railway and Orangeturnpike may be seen
iagman with one leg. The other he lost
in the wreck l have just described. Had
he had OSborne's nerve TO face the danger,
he would have escaped also unhurt. Poor
fellow! The man who issued the pre-
sumptuous blunder that day tried to buy
Z
the sum of one hundred dollars, an offer
which poor 1Bob's wife met with this
query: "Mr. -, would you sell one oi
your legs for a hundred dollars?"s -
sa During the war an. Incident occurred on
{ the Pennsylvania Central which was relat-
ed to me by an eyewitness. My inform
ant was with regiment of soldiers going
from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg in speeis
train. Between JohAstown and the sum-
NIT they were delayed by a freight train
off the track, or a part of its cars off. This
they learned at. one OF the stations, and re-
manned there until they should be informed
that the track was clear, 1t was in tn,
l night, and most of the thousand men OIL
the train were asleep, unconscious of theil
danger. Four heavily loaded coal-cars be
longing to the train ahead had, by accident
become detached, and began the descent oi
a heavy grade at a speed which soon be-
came terrible. The engineer of the specia
train heard the roar OF the descending cars
and surmised what was the matter. In
| stantly, he ordered his engine to be de
tached from the train and put on steam &
meet the runaway cars, if possible, to breal
| their force and save his train. His loeomo
| tive was large freight, and he had moveC
| several rods ahead when the coal-car
! struck him like thunderbolt, and crushe,
| his engine back on the train; but his hero
I ic courage had saved many lives. His en-
| gine was utterly demolished, and many G
| his cars were also crushed; but so had h
| broken the force of the shock no lives wer
i lost. The mans name was Story, and hi
| grateful beneticiaries presented him som
Il elegant silver plate, with the deed itself an
their names engraved on them. Whe
asked why he did not abandon his train, II
replied: "Quick as lightning thought
| had better die than to have those runawa
cars cut clean through my train, destroy
| ing hundreds" It was heroic answer.
Let me relate one more incident in th
same line. That part of the Marietta an
| Cincinnati railroad between Athens an
| the Ohio river was formerly made famOU
by the number of its long and high trestl
bridges. With few exceptions, these al
now filled up, and the road is becoming on
of the best. Atone time the company wei
in great straits, and many of their opera
tives were unpaid. Some of the men wer
desperate, and, as the facts proved, danger
Gus. On certain evening a train was az
preaching one of these treStle bridges.
was known that the directors of the roa
were aboard, aud some villain had detel
mined to throw the whole train from tn;
bridge. The engineer, letting his trai
move at the ordinary speed, suddenly di.
covered that Il rail had been displaced o
the bridge. He seemed to know instinct
| lively that the momentum was too great
save the whole train, and he signaled I'll
breaks down and reversed the engine, {
stop, if possible, the cars before reachin
the chasm. Then, opening the throttle
valve, the engine sprang forwad so violent
ly as to break the connection with the Lrail
and dashed to the awful leap. The bol
man, as this was going on, ran out of h
window on the engine aud opened til
escape-vaIVe: While standing there tt
engine went over with him, and maryelol
to relate, he, falling under the hue
weight, was preserved from being crushe
, by the engine bell at his side. The trai
for the rescue of which he had exhibitf
such incredible pluck, stopped just soc
! To- ho hnr hi lnn