The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-10-02
A Thrilling Race.

"DID you read that railroad item in
the Times of Monday headed My MUIR
der'? asked a railroad man in a circle
last night.
"You mean a clipping describing how
a supposed runaway locomotive was
wrecked by a station agent under or
ders of the company's officers, and it
was subsequently discovered that mad
man was on the LOCOMOTIVES and the
cause of the runaway losing his life at
the time?'' inquired another person.
Eyes, the same,' was the rejoinder
Il have heard that story BEFORE" re-
marked third party, between sundry
puffs of cigar smoke.
cit was quite exciting said another
railroad man. 81 know of an incident
that was far more exciting, however,
and it happened on the Marietta & Gin
cinnati Railroad not many years ago.
1t came near costing number of lives
''What was that?'' was the general
inquiry and then with one accord the
circle closed up about the man who APP
parently had "yarn to spin"
cit happened east of Chillicothe.
You all know Bill Gallagher, passenger
conductor of the M. & c.? Yes. Well,
that fellow has been in more accidents
and shows fewer scratches than any
man l ever saw. At the time l speak
of he was conductor of freight-train
on the M. & C. He had lively train
one night and the operator had orders
to instruct Gallagher to side track it at
the next station east of ChillicOthe. The
operator made a mistake, however, and
the order Bill received sent him on !,
station further. The brass FOUNDER
soon found out that he had made grave
blander and one, which might cost
many lives. Upon making the discov-
cry he became almost insane from fright,
and by his remarkable actions and in
coherent expressions, attracted the at
tentiOn of every person near, among
others, Charlie Howard, the train dis
patcher. He raved like crazy man.,
and no one could get anything out of
some terrible calamity about to happen
on the road. Charlie Howard watched
and listened to the man attentiyely for
some minutes, and from his knowledge
of the trains and running time, he
guessed at the true state of affairs. The
next station was called and the startling
information learned that the freight
train had passed there. The west
bound passenger train was also found to
be on time and a terrible collision on
the road seemed at the time inevitable
"Charlie Howard proved the right
man in the right place that time. An
engine was hastily brought out and
pressed into use. A red hot fire was
soon causing the steam to angrily hiss
from the valves. The throttle was
pulled open and the engine sped away
like frightened race horse. Never
was such time made on the rail before.
The engine was urged on at frightful
rate of speed in the seemingly vain
hope of over-hauling Bill Gallagher
freight train. At last the object being
chased could be seen a long ways
ahead, and the steam whistle was
called into use. Gallagher saw the en-
CINE bearing down upon him and heard
the whistling, which he failed to UNI
derstand. In some way he became i'm
pressed with the idea that another
freight train was behind, and rapidly
"PPIOachluS MN. NciymS Oh Tic Ielc
graphic orders he had received, and,
desiring to keep away from the sup
posed train behind him, he hurried his
own train ahead. Thus it happened
that a very Unmatched race COM
menced and promised to Illustrate the
plans of Charlie Howard. Gallagher's
train was being pushed to its utmost
speed, and the time consumed in
shortening the distance between it and
Towards engine seemed painfully long
to the pursuing parties. Steadily but
surely, however, Gallagher was over
hauled, but it was not until the single
engine touched the rear end of the
freight train that the signal down
brakes was understood. The train
soon came to stop, the situation was
hurriedly explained, signal was