The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-08-28

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~ To make. it an intelligent
matter to the reader, let ne say that the
Buffalo, Cory and Pittsburg Road in-
tersects the Lake Shore Road at this
place. The station at the junotion js
called Brooton. Now let it be under:
stood that from this point TO May
vile, at the head Of Chautauqua Lake, q
distance of only about ten miles. a train
From the station to the summit the
with curves which increase the distance
by four miles. It is over this road that
the immense quantities of petroleum are
brought.
On Tuesday evening, about 0 o'clock,
train consisting of six oil cars and two
passenger cars reached the summit on it's
way to the junction. Here. by some
cause as yet unexplained, one of the oil
tanks took fire. The passenger cars
we're at one detached, and the brakes
stopped them. Next the oil cars were
cut of, and the locomotive, tender and
box car, containing two valuable horses
and two men, passed down the road, the
engineer supposing that the brakemen
on the oil cars would arrest the course of
those, but what was his horror on look
ing back, to see the six cars in pursuit of
him down the grade, enveloped in flames!
They not only pursued but overlook
him, striking the box car with incon-
ceivable force, knocking the horses and
men fiat upon the floor, and yet almost
miraculously not throwing the engine
from the track.
It was now with the engineer n race
for life, and he gave the engine every
ounce of steam. Looking South from
the piace of my residence at that terrible
juncture, one of the most magnificent
spectacles was witnessed that q man sees
in Lifetime. = sheet of intensely bright
flame, sixty feet high, was seen coming
down that Southern slope, apparently
with the speed of o meteor, and really
very nearly the speed of hurricane,
eighty miles an hour,) for pursued and
pursucr flew over the course, or rather
down it, and around the curves, at the
rate of more than seventy miles an hour,
as the engineer declares. and as every
body can believe who witnessed the
spectacle. The whole heavens were illu-
minated, and the landscape was lit up as
by the MONDAY light. Onward and
downward flew the engine, and behind it
flew and thundered the huge fiery de-
mon. Twice its prodigious weight was
driven against the fugitive, rs if instinct
with purpose to drive it from the track.
1t seemed az if to the heroic engineer
and fireman there was perfect environ
ment of peril. The speed of the engine
was sHch that it ceased to pump; then
again, the Cincinnati express was due at
of the oil train whistled "open switch"
onl c1, r bo N nc fbo Gro,,o, xl>,x,
bade each other farewell, knowing that
their lives depended on the opening of
the Lake Shore switch by their friends
below, and this was to imperil the express
train coming down from the West with
its living human freight. The engineer
on this train saw the fire when it first
broke out at the summit, and supposing
he could clear the junction before the
flaming terror reached it, he, too, put his
engine to the utmost speed on q level
grade. A mile short of the junction he
saw that the effort was vain one, for
the flying conhagration had rushed out
upon the Lake Shore track, and was
roaring onward in the direction of Dun
kirk. He checked the onward course of
his own train and brought it to stand
still. It did not proceed until B o'clock
III the morning.
The case took in another danger, and
it was imminent. 4 heavy freight train
was coming up the Lake Shore road.
All will say of the escape of this is that
it did escape to the side track, and only
escaped by the last minute of possibility
Running on to safe distance from the
depot, the engineer of the oil train de-
tached his engine and left the six cars to
consume. He says his situation was
fully realized by him. He expected to
lose his life. At every moment he ex-
pected the engine to leave the track. He
saw he was going at a perilous rate of
speed, but there was no help for it. The
demon was behind him, and he declares
that it looked like demon. With that
fondness of real affection for his engine,
which these men display, he said, "I
thought everything of my engine, and
was determined to stay by it to the last. :"
The fireman made one attempt to escape
by jumping from the tender, but the en-
gineer restrained him. Altogether the
occurrence was remarkable one, and in
part remarkable for this, that no lives
were lost. The brakemen on the oil cars
had gone back to the passenger cars,
when the oil cars started. It was well
they did. Unless those rear cars had
hoon 1at q ri, ad MI otoorod 81, 81. -, -, NJ ~.