McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-10-11
CHASED BY BURNING OIL
CARS.

CHASED BY BURNING OIL
CARS.
New York Sum-
81 don't expect to live much longer
and after l am dead I want you to put
in the papers the story of that ride 1 had
from Prospect to Brocton in 1862"
The speaker was Duff Brown, an old
locomotive engineer, who was lying a,
his home in Portland, N. Y, dying with
consumption. This was several weeks
ago. On the 7th of this month he died
He was nearly 60 years old. His story
of the awful ride is this:
s'In 1869 was running mixed train
on the Buffalo, Cory & Erie railway.
The track between Prospect or Mayville
Summit and Brocton Junction is so
crooked that, while the distance is ac-
tually only ten miles, the curves make
it by rail fourteen. The grade for the
whole distance is over seventy feetto the
mile.
About O'Clock on the night of Au-
gust 10, 1869, we reached the summit
with train of two passenger cars, six
oil cars, and box car. The latter
contained two valuable trotting horses,
and their keepers with them, on their
way, 1 believe, to the Cleveland meet
ing. There were fifty or sixty pas
sengers in the two cars. l got the
signal from the conductor to start, and
I pulled out. We had got under con-
siderable Roadway, when, looking back,
I saw that an oil car in the middle of
the train was on fire. I reversed my
engine and whistled for brakes. The
conductor and brakemen jumped off.
They uncoupled the passenger cars and
set the brakes on them, bringing them
to stop. Supposing that the brakes
on the burning oil cars would also be
put on, called to brakeman on the
box car to draw the coupling pin be-
tween that car and the head oil tank,
backing so that he could d. it, intend
ing to run far enough away to save the
box car and locomotive.
AS ran down the hill, after the pin
had been drawn, what was my horror to
see that the burning cars were follow
ing me at a speed that was rapidly in
creasing. The men had not succeeded
in putting on the brakes. I saw that
the only thing to be done was to run
for it to Brocton, and the chances were
that we would never reach there at the
speed which we would be obliged to
make around those sharp reverse
curves, where we had never run over
twenty miles an hour.
"When [ saw the flaming cars-for
the whole six were on fire Dy this time
-plunging after me, and only flew
feet away, 1 pulled the throttle open.
The oil cars caught me, though, before
I got away. They came with full force
against the rear of the box car, smash
ing in one end and knocking the horses
and their keepers fiat on the floor. The
heat was almost unbearable, and, do
my best, couldn't place more than
thirty feet between the pursuing column
of fire and ourselves. By the light
from the furnace, as my fireman opened
the door to pile in the coal, I caught
sight of the face of one of the
horsemen in the box car,
he having climbed up to the
grated opening in the end. 1t was as
pale as death, and he begged me for
Gods sake to give her more steam. I
was giving her then all the steam she
could carry, and the grade itself was
enough to carry us down at the rate of
fifty miles an hour. We went SO fast
that the engine couldn't pump. Every
time we struck one of those curves the
old girl would almost run on one set of
wheels, and why in the world she didn't
topple over is something never could
understand. She seemed to know that
it was race of life and death, and
worked as if she were alive.
"The night was dark, and the road
ran through woods, deep rock cuts, and
along high embankments. There we
were, laundering along at lightning
speed, and, only few PAGES behind US,
that fiery demon in full pursuit. There
were $4,000 gallons of oil in those
tanks, at least, and it was all in flame,
making a flying avalanche of fire 500
feet long. The flames 1eaped into the
air nearly a hundred feet. Their roar
was like that of some great cataract.
Now and then a tank would explode
with a noise like a cannon, when a col
umn of flame and pltchy smoke would
mount high above the body of the
flames, and showers of burning oil
would be scattered about in the woods.
The whole country was lighted up for
miles around.
"Well, it wasn't long, going at the
rate we made, before the lights of
Brocton came in sight down in the val
lev. The relief 1 felt when these came
in view was short lived, for remem-
bered that train No. 8, on the Lake