Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1869-09-02
elizabeth Daily apnitor,
PUBLISHED AT 1876 BROAD STREET, BY
J. MADISON DRAKE.
Am Engineer Chased by Fire at Seven-
ty Miles an Hour-A Thrilling
Narrative.

To make it an ineligible matter to
| the reader, let me say that Buffalo, Cor
ry & Pittsburg road intersects the Lake
Shore road at this place. The station
at the junction is named Brocton. Now
let it be understood that from this
point to Maysville, at the head of Cha
taqua Lake, q distance OF ouly about
ten miles, q train is carried over an
elevation of about seven hundred feet.
From the station to the summit the
grade is about eighty feet to the mile,
/ with curves which increase the distance
by four miles. 1t is over this road
that the immense quantities of petrole.
um are brought.
On Tuesday evening, about o'clock
a train consisting of six oil cars and
two passengers cars, reached the sum-
NIT on its way to the junction. Here,
by some cause as yet unexplained, one
of the oil tanks took fire. The passen-
ger cars were at once detached, and the
brakes stopped them. Next the oil
cars were cut off, and the locomotive
tender and box car, containing two val
liable horses and two men, passed down
the road, the engineer supposing that
the brakemen on the oil cars would ar
rest the course of those, but what was
his horror on looking 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 inconceiyable force,
knocking the horses fiat on the floor,
and almost miraculously not throwing
! the engine from the track,
1t was now with the engineer race
for life, and he gave the engine every
ounce of steam. Looking south from
the place of my residence at that terri
BILE juncture. one of the most magnif-
cent spectacles was witnessed that a
man sees in lifetime. A sheet Of in
tensely bright flame, sixty feet high,
was seen coming down that southern
slope, apparently with the speed of
meteor, and really very near the speed
of hurricane, eighty miles an hour J
for pursued and pursuer flew over the
course, or rather down it, and around
the curves, at the rate of more than
seventy miles an our, as the engineer
declares, and as everybody can believe
who witnessed the spectacle. The
whole heavens were Illuminated, and
the landscape was lit up by the noon
day light. Onward and downward flew
the engine, and behind it flew and
Numbered the huge fiery demon
Twice its prodigious weight was driven
against the fugitive, as if inspired with
purpose to drive it from the track
1t seemed as if, to the heroic engineer
and fireman, there was perfect envi-
romen of peril. The speed of the en-,
CINE was such that it ceased to pump !;
then again, the engineer of the oil train
whistled "open SWITCH" and shaking
hands with the fireman, they babe 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 engi-
neer ON this train saw the fire when it
first broke out at the summit, and sup
posing he could clear the junction be-
fore the flaming terror reached it, he,
too, put his engine to the utmost speed
on level grade. A mile short of the
junction he saw that the effort was a
vain one. for the flying confagration
had rushed out upon the Lake Shore
track, and was roaring onward in the
direction of Dunkirk. He checked the
headlong rush of his own train and
brought it to a standstill. 1t did not
proceed until three o'clock in the morn
ing.
The case took in another danger,
and it was imminent. A 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 of
the track, and only escaped by the last
minute of possibility. Running on to
a safe distance from the depot, the en-
gineer of the oil train detached his en-
CINE and left the six cars to consume.
He says his situation was fully reali-
zed by him. He expected to lose his
life. At every moment he expected the
engine to leave the track He saw he
was going at perilous rate of speed,
but there was no help for it. The de
mon was behind him, and he declares
that it looked like demon. With that
fondness or affection for his engine,
which these men display, he said 81
thought every thing 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,
bnt the engineer restrained him AL
together the occurrence was remarka-
BILE 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. 1t was well they did
Unless these cars had been detached
and stopped, their inmate would have
been burnt to death. Grand Rapids
(Michigan) Eagle.