The Osceola times., 1881-07-16
THIRTY YEARS On The RAIL.
An Interesting Chat with . Locomotive
Eogineer.3

an ihtefestlns Snht WIN y Locomotive
Eog,ncer3
Hartford fines
A Times reporter recently had
pleasant chat with Mr.. Edmund b. Gil
bert, an engineer on the Valley road.
Not yet 90 years old, this man can boast
OF going through the Mexican war, he.
sides being thirty years an engineer.
In speaking of his runs he said an en-
eineer is expected to make time, and
when heavy fogs prevail and he cannot
see what Is ahead, he has got to shoot
along and take his chances. II is like
taking plunge with ones eyes shut.
But after all the danger can be but slight
when an engineer can tell Of thirty
years Cxoerience without an accident.
Mr. Gilbert says he has run over, first
and last, number OF human beings,
and he knows that some OF them were
.elt.immolated. He tells of a neighbor
of his who lived next doo- to him, not
a dozen feet from Lis own house, who
allowed his train TO run over him. Gil
bert SAWS he saw him on the track, and
saw him look around at the tram, and,
OF course, not dreaming that he contem-
plated suicide, supposed that he would
step from the track 10 time. But, to
Jus niTrOF, NUtu inc ltulH was WllIlln
$50 feet of him he turned about and
faced death. The train was too near to
ue stopped in time. The engineer could
not save him, and he turned his head
when the merciless iron horse struck
his neighbor.
The latest case he relates was one OF
attempted suicide just below the depot
in Wethersfeld which occurred last
10. 4. tf.,t
quite a distance ahead on the track, bu.
before he could make out Just what it
was he was so near that he had only
time to stop the train within ten feet Of
it. 1t proved to be woman wrapped
up in a shawl, intent upon committing
suicide. Her name was Mrs. Ann Hos
gan; and some time later she accom-
plished her object by drowning herself
in the Connecticut river.
Nearly everybody, in all walks of life,
has heard what he would call narrow
escapes, but we doubt if the most re-
markable of them can compare with the
following actual occurrence, as related
! by Mr.. Gilbert, The train was near
Yorky,!le, heading for New Haven, and
was com posed of eight passenger cars,
filled with passengers. The train was
]
A fog was prevailing SO that the en-
gineer could not see the switch signal,
but the fog had lifted from the ground,
so that he could see the track quite
distance ahead-say $50 or 200 feet. He
kept bis eye on the rails, and directly
his heart gave thump, Tor TO his great
CONSERVATION he saw the end Of the
rails. Then he knew that the switch
] Il h
inevitable, though he did not for an in
slant lose his presence Of mind. He in
stantly applied the steam brakes and
reversed the engine. For fireman he
had a Young man who has since become
his on.in. law, but he did not tell him
of the impending peril. Indeed, he had
not much lime. lie kept his eye on the
rail as the train, in spite Of the brakes
and the reversed machinery, was rush.
ing on to destruction.
From where he stood he could see
the rails up TO within seventeen feet of
the locomotive. He saw that the switch
was still misplaced when his vision Of
seventeen feet was cut off, and he braced
himself for the shock. lie says his
thoughts at this awful moment were not
for himself, but for the passengers-50o
in number-meu, women and children.
He seemed TO live an age in the few
brief seconds which had elapsed from the
time he discovered the misplaced switch.
There were rocks on either side of the
track, and. as he expressed it, the
sphnters were bound to fly. But the
ANTICIPATED crash never came. The
dread seventeen feet, with five times
seventeen added, had been left behind
before the engineer could believe his
senses and feel that the danger was past.
With a feeling of relief he could again
see the continuous lines Of the rails, and
he knew his train was safe. Just in the
nick OF time, with not quarter Of a sec
ond to spare, the switchman had placed
the switch. When we consider that
single revolution of the driving wheel
to the locomotive propels the train more
than fifteen feet, and the switch was
righied inside OF one revolution of the
wheel when the train was going at the
rate OF twenty-five miles an hour, We
think all will agree that it was narrow
escape.
"The Westinghouse brake ga; ed rs
that time" said the engineer. BY the
application Of the steam brakes the train
had slackened lust enough to save the
pr, clOus cargo by single revolution OF
he driving wncels. Who says the life
OF an engineer is not a life of excitement?