Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1874-07-24
CONCLUSION.


From Taylor's Modern Highways.
Tom Potts, well known locomo-
tive engineer in England and the
states, is the selfacredited hero of
the following wonderful story Of sue
cessful daring. l will narrate it as
nearly as can in his own words. l
have heard him tell it often:
"Wcll, gentlemen, | dare say you'll
think its lie, but l can't help that;
you have asked me to tell it, and all
/ can say is, if you'd been in my
place you'd have seen it.
II had been driving the Witch
about seven months, and q sweet
thing she was. / never was half so
fond of an engine as l was of her.
She was the kind of machine man
only gets once in Il lifetime.
"Shc made her steam quick, was
easy on fuel, started off lively, and
went like deer. Her cylinders
were Is inch, her stroke %, and her
drivers feet 6, and she was as kind
to handle as a baby.
"To see her run off with heavy
load, light and gay was enough to
shame the Juno, Venus, and Helen,
and other Is inch machines.
"Shc never wanted fixing up.
Venus was always going in and out
of the shop to be titivatcd, and if
there's anythink l don't like it's an
engine that all the time wants to be
titivated. She was always ready and
willing for work. Why, bless you!
she was only washed out for the sake
of clcanliness-shc didn't need it Il
bit.
"She was the tidicst thing I ever
seen-seemed as though dirt would
MT stick to her.
"Well, what l am going to tell
came off years ago, before l left the
old country, and it was one of the
best railroads-single track then,
though it's got three now, and four
in some spots.
"Wcll, the Witch and were put
OH the mail one of the fastest trains,
and they went like sixty in them
days.
"Thc engineer was fined a shilling
for every minute he lost. lie dared
not go slow for fog, unless he wanted
to lose his days pay. lie had to
keep going right along, and see
things before he got in sight Of 'em.
eve were running north one dark
ish wintry day, and we were max
ing our best streaks. Ishould reckon
we were going about fifty miles an
hour.
"Iwas saying to myself, she's GO
ing her prettiest,' when we suddenly
shot ahead, as if we had been fired
out of a cannon.
II knew what that meant. We
had broke loose; we hadn't a car be-
hind us. The coupling had broken
between the tender and the first
coach.
"How we flew, to be sure! 1
whistled the guard to brake up the
train. How we bounded along!
II could make out nothing along
side; we seemed to 60 faster and fast
er, we must have got as fast as 100
miles per hour.
at was q straight piece Of track
for some miles. / did not shut off
steam directly We broke, for l didn't
want the train to run into lis, which
might happen it they did not hear
me whistle for brakes.
"It was lucky l kept her going for
Just as had had about enough Of
such flying, man started out about
six hundred yards before us holding
a red flag.
"Thcre was nothing in tho way,
SO knew something must be wrong
with the track.
"You might as we'll have tried to
stopa whirlwind as the Witch in
that distance. Her speed was fright
full.
"There wasn't much time to think,
and a. we could not stop, the faster
we went tho better; 50 l gave what
moro steam there was. She seemed
to have some go in reserve. for We
shot past the red flag like tlash.
III saw mon standing horror struck.
"sBill," said ! "quick! get on the
coke and see what's ahead"
sHe looked, and won't deadly, pale,
t0ttcred and fell back in faint.
g by this time / could see plain
enough what was wrong.
"sIlerc was - gap in the track
whore the hrilye had gOnc down.