Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-02-20
FAST TRAVEL.
An Interesting Story by an Engineer q
tho Lake Shore Road.

FAST TRAVEL.
An Interesting Story by an Engineer ON
tho Lake Shore Road.
From an Interview In tho Cleye and Herald. !
III the ira n IL fifteen or twenty min
ute late on your account II Is torril lie
temptation to let her out going down
IL mild grade. Fifty miles m hour is
fast time to make with eight or ten
cars behind you. Fifty-flve il very
fast, even for short distances land
sixty IL seldom attained. When you
come to consider that lightweight feet
of ground IL passed over every second,
you will bogln to understand some.
thing of the terrible speed. Even ut
fifty miles an hour you will see by II
little figuring that seventy-three feet
are passed over in Il single second
How soon can train be stopped
when running at such rate Of speeap'
'That depends upon the emergency.
If we are sliding into station and
know Just how TO plan the case is
very different than 1t would be should
we discover load of dynamite stuck
on the track" continued the engineer,
Iaughingly. "What l mean Is that
the discovery that n bridge was gone,
and we were within 1000 feet of the
bank, we might stop, but again we
might not. IT we were 200 feet away
and did not have too heavy train, /
think we could bring the engine te u
standstill before the bank was reached.
II we were approaching station and
n, special emergency occurred, suth
rs i have related, we would begin TO
stop 1000 feet away, that IL, Ii we
wsIe running fifty miles per hour"
"You must have had many oppor-
tunities for making fast time in your
long experience suggested the re-
p, rter.
"On yes; and yet 1t Is hard To call
Just those special occasions to mind.
One of the fastest trips | ever made
ov II any part of it, was when | yank-
cd old Cornelius Vanderbilt from Erie
to Cleveland In an hour and thirty
nine minutes. That was on the LIST
or I'd of May, 1875, the day before
the stockholders meeting in the city.
The special had been delayed all tho
way from New York 10 Buffalo by
the i'm mense travel over the road In
cident to the Centennial Exhibition.
When backed her up t. the car at Erie
my orders were To let her out, and
did. From Erie to Girnrd, Pa. the
track was heavy, and IL took us cigh-
teen minutes to make the fifteen
miles. That would never do. The
fireman braced up tn, fire, aud l
pulled her open. Well, now, we fairly
Jew. You see we had 10 make four
stops, once for water, and three times
at targets. When you come to take
out of ninety-nine minutes the actual
time consumed In the whole trip the
time occupied In four stops aud the
time lost in going from Erie 10 Girard,
you can sec that some lively time had
TO be made somewhere. The distance
Is ninety.five and half miles, and we
must have made the last eighty of
them in lust eighty minutes and
stopped four times. ] guess that's u
little the liveliest travelling the. old
man ever got
IL there perceptible difference In
the motion or in the swaying OF the
engine when running nj such specdV
'Oh, yes. The engine seems to go
almost by bounds. First II will sway
to the right and seem to rum nearly II
quarter of mile on chat side, then II
will rock over To the left and give
another prodigious leap forward The
current created by such speed is
from the wind. The responsibility o!
the cngineer's position comes very
wildly 10 his mind when dashlng
through IA thiclSly populated district ut
that rate OF speed. You can catch
sight of an object ahead, grasp the
lever nervously, and almost before
you would have time TO close
the. valve YOU have passed the
point i'm view. IL such schedule
Is TO be mNntaine | for such Il distance
the engineer must take advantage OF
everything. On an upgrade we must
crowd the engine ahead TO her utmost
capahility, aud on u down grade we
must go as fast rs We dare. T. very
easy 60 talk about having ridden sixty
miles an hour, but Just let one of those
fellows mount the cab of a Sprlngless
locomotive aud be charged with the
duty OF driving the engine ut that rate
speed for ninety or hundred miles.
l have an idea that they would loo
willing to admit that they had never
before exceeded twenty-five miles an
hour,
discerned from the distance OF the ears
-rhow can a passenger tell the train Is
M liking sixty miles an hour
The difference OF motion, OF every
thing. There Is seemingly more diff,
ference between forty-milcs IAN hour
aud sixty-miles an hour rate OF speed
than there il betwe n n twenty aud a
forty mile gait. Tho cinderS rattling
against the windows sound like peb
bles. When the car strikes sharp
curve you will be thrown bali oil your
seat. The dust unless you are riding
ON stone. ballastod road Is trighti0l
and hides nearly everything. II any
one has ever ridden sixty miles Ia sixty
minutes he won't be in any doubt ol
the fact
What Wicked Men Want.
IIersey city Joaraal,l
ooh. yes, said madame, after thu