The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1877-07-27
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CHASED BY A TRAIN ON FIRE,
An Engineers Story.

1--WE been down the bank more n
once, an had few bad smash-ups in
the twenty years I've run a locomotive,
but the closest call / ever had was the
time l was chased from Mayvil,e to
BroctoD Junction by an oil train all afire
L KIN almost feel my hair turn white
when think O that"
He was one of the oldest engineers on
the Lake Shore road, and was riding me
on his engine from Brocton to Dunkirk.
Il was on the Buffalo, Cory and Erie
road then. 1t was in 1S69-August the
18th. The bit O track 'twixt Mayville
and Brocton is about the crookedest an
steepest stretch there is in the country
It's 10 mile from one to t other, but the
twists in the road made it Is. The grade
s about so foot t tn mile The road s
so crooked that it's a standing joke
'mong tn boys that they dasn't put
more'n ten cars in a tain or tn engine
III butt tn caboose certain. The road
runs down into the Pennsylvany oil
country, an heaps O. petroleum is run
over it. That night, bout 9 o'clock, /
was .gettin' ready t. leave tn summit
with box car, six oil cars and two pas
senger cars. Tn latter was full. Th'
box car had two valuable trottin' horses
in it. l got tn signal from tn conduc-
tor to go ahead, and started her up.
We was under tolble headway when l
see flames bust out'n one O. the oil cars.
l whistled down brakes. The passenger
car was cut loose, an the brakes put on.
We cut the engire and box car off from
the burnin' cars, and thinkin' the brake
mend stop them, l pulled on slowly
down the hill. But pretty soon.I see /
was in a fix. The oil cars wasn't stopped,
an they came tearing down the grade
after us, an fore could give my engine
speed 'nough TO git out'n the way, kea
boom they come 'gainst the box car,
smashin' in one end, and knockin' tn
horses an their keepers flat on the floor.
It's a mighty wonder the shock did'nt
knock the engine off the track, an it did
give her an awful husselin But she
settled down t her work s if she knowid
we was bound to have a race for life."
Lord, how them flames roared,
Every internal car was afire now, an tn
heat was terrible / could hear them
HOSES fairly scream with terror. Both
the keepers clumb up t the end O. the
car mex to- tn engine. 1 could see by
tn black light of tn furnance that their
faces was's white as chalk, an they hol-
lered to me: For Christs sake, Jack,
give her more steam They didn't
knowt had her pulled wide open an
was tearin' down that so foot grade at
nearly so mile an hour. She went so
fast, so help me God, that she quit
pumpin'. We shot round them curves
like streak o, hghtnin', an every time
we'd strike one seemed t we mus go
over. When the oil cars struck US, we
made gap of ten feet between them and
us, an we could MT increase it. to save
our souls"
Poor Jimmy Keenan, was my fire.
man. He was crazed for bout minute,
when the burnin' cMs hit us an KEEP so
close in our wake He tried to jump
off, but grabbed him and held him till
he cum to himself, and he stuck to the
old gal like man. Jimmy got killed
in pickin' a young one off the track
ahead of an express train near Cory
wear or two afterward. He saved the
young one, though"
at wasa dark night, an though 1 felt
t the chances was we'd never get to
Brocton alive, could MT help but be
struck with tn scene Here was US
a-thunderin' along Eastern any engine
ever went in this country afore or since,
through woods an on tn edge of high
rocks.expectin' every minute to be huri-
ed off tn track an carried home to our
wives crushed an mangled out o all
KNOWN O. u.s. The HOSES was stampln