The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1883-11-15
AN AWFUL RIDE.
CHASED BY 4 FEARFUL. kYALANCmB
b q .,.. OF FLAME. .. ~ 2
Engineer Browns Dash Down Tho RIouu..
tain Sije In Front OF Blazing OIL
Train,
IFrom the Now York Sun.l


II don't expect to 1.-Two much longer,
and after am dead / want you to pul
in tho papers tho story of ihat ride /
had from Prospect to Brocton in 1869"
The speaker was Duff Brown, IN old
locomotive engineer, who was lying Mt
his homo in Portland dying with con-
sumption. This was somo time ago.
On the 7th of September he died. He
was nearly sixty years old. His story Of
the awful ride is this:
"In 1869 was running n mixed train
on the Buffalo, Cory and Eric Railway.
Tho track between Prospect or Mayvillo
Summit and Brocton Junction is SC
crooked that, while tho distance is only
ten miles, the curves make it by rail
fourteen. Tho grade for the whole dis
tanco is over seventy feet to the mile.
"About nine o'clock on the night of
Aug II, 1869, we reached tho Summit
with train Of two passenger cars, six
oil cars: and n box car. The latter con-
tanned two valuable trotting horses, and
their keepers with them, on their way, /
believe, to the Cleveland meeting There
-wero fifty or sixty passengers i'll the two
cars. [ got the signal from the conductor
to start, and pulled out. We bad got
under considerable headway, when, look
ing back, ! saw that an oil car in tho
middle Of tho train was on fro. / re-
vcrscd my engine and whistled for
brakes. The conductor and brakcmcn
jumped Off They uncoupled the pas
Bcngcr cars and set The brakes on them,
bringing them to stop. Supposng
that the brakes on the burning oil cars
would also be put on, ] called toa brake.
man on the box Carto draw the coupling
pin between that car and tho head oil
tank, backing so that he could do it, in
tending TO run far enough away to save
the box car and locomotive. AS ran
on down tho hill, after the Pin had been
drawn, what WAS my horror to SEQ that
the burning cars were following mo ut a
speed that was rapidly incrcasing The
mon had not succeeded in putting on
the brakes. I saw that the only thing
to be done was to run for it to Brocton,
md the chances were that we would
never reach There ut the speed which we
would hc obliged to make around those
sharp reverse curves, where VIC had never
run over twenty miles an hour.
"When [ saw the flaming cars--fOr
the whole six wcro on fire by this time
--phnGing after me, md only II few feet
away. pulled tho throttle open. The
oil cars caught me, though, before I got
away. They came with full force against
the rear of tho box car, smashing in one
end and knocking tho horses and their
Keepers flat on tho floor. The heat was
almost mbearablc, and, DO my best, |
couldn't place moro than thirty feet be.
tween the pursuing Ecolumn of Iire and
ourselves. BY the light from 'hc fur
mace, rs my fireman opened the door to
pile III TIC coal, J. caught sight of the
face Of one OF the horscmcn in the box
car, he having climbed mp to the grated
opening i'll the end. 1t was rs pale as
death, and he begged me for Gods sake
to give her more steam. 1 was giving
her then all the steam sho could carry.
and the grade Itself was enough to carry
us down ut tho rate Of fifty miles an
hour. We went 30 fast that tho cnoinc
couldn't pump, Every time we struck
one of those curves tho old girl would
almost run on ono set of whccls, and
why i'll the world Shc didn't topplo over
ia something never could understand.
She seemed to know that it was race
of lie and death, and worked as if she
were n?ivo.
"rhc night was dark, and the road
ram through woods, deep rock cuts, aud
along high cmbaukmcnts. There we
were, laundering along Mt lightning
speed, and, only II few PAGES. behind us,
wcro fifty thousand gallons of oil in
those thinks, at least, and it was all IL
flame, making flying avalanche of fire
five hundred feet long. The flames
lcapcd into tho air nearly q hundred
feet. Their roar was like That Of some
great cataract Now and then Il tank
would explode with n noise like Il cal..
non when n column of flame and Ditchy
smoke would mount higi above the bod,
Of the flames, and showers OF burning
oil would be scattered ~bout in the
woods. The whole country was lighted
M for miles around.
"Wcll, it wasn't long, going at The
cato wo made, before the lights of Broc.
ton came III sight down III tho valley.
The relief | felt when these came in view
was short lived, for I remembered tha
train No. 8, on the Lakc Shore, woul,
be due at the Junction just about in.
hme we would reach it. No. was The
cincinnati express. Our only hope, all
along during the race, had been that the
sWltchmAn at the Junction would think
far enough to open the switch there
connecting the cross cut track with the
Lake Shore track, aud let us run N ON
tho Inter, where the grade woula hc
against us, ii anything, and where VIC
could soon get ont Of The way Of the oil
cars. The switch, of course, would b,
closed now for the express, and our last
hope was gone, unless tho express was
late, or somebody had sense to flag it.
While we were thinking of this we saw
tho express tearing along toward &c
Junction. Could we reach the Junction
get the switch, and tho switch be set
back for the express before the latter
got there? If not, there would be al
inevitable crash, in which, not only VIC
but probably scores Of others would he
crushed to death. AL this coniecturine
did not occupy two seconds. but in that
two seconds / lived years.
g Good God 7 said to my fireman,
'what arc we to do nOw?'
"Hhe fireman promptly rcplicd--nnd
he w0s n bravo little fcllow--thnt I
should whistle for the switch and take
the chances. / did so. That whistle
Nrplpnf,n1 $ r