The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-04-09
THE ENGINEERS LAST TRIP.
An Incident That Proved TO be TOO Mach
la for his Nerves


An Incident That Proved to be- TOO Mach
~ for bis Nerves
Do you know why gave up my loco
motive? Well, I'll tell you. About ten
years ago was promoted from freight to
passenger, and ] was as proud of my new
machine as boy with his first pair of cop
per-toed boots. tell you old 126 was
daisy Well, had been running her for
some eighteen months when had the ex.
perience that made me throw up my job.
The bare remembrance of that night nearly
makes my hair stand on end II was cold,
dreary night in November, with the wind
blowing regular gale and the fog so thick
that couldn't see more than thirty feet
ahead of the pilot to save my lfe l had
left st. Louis with an unusually big load of
passengers, including distinguished party
of gentlemen ON their way to Washington
believe my train was the fastest one run
ming East at that time. My time-card called
for at least forty miles an hour Well, sir,
Just before I started something happened
that would make many an engineer abandon
his trip, but didn't want TO seem cowardly
and went ahead. What was itP Why,
after got my orders from the train dis
patcher's Office and was on nv way to INV
machine, somebody inside called me back.
My fireman was near me and said, For
Gods sake, jim, don't go. You know
somethinp awful will hanneu-it always
does when a man goes back after getting
his orders, Well / hes;tated n moment.
and then + tbonobt 10 myself. THAT'S all
nopsense-Pm not superstjtious.' The fell.
low only wanted ia give mo some trivial
message and half nm bour later ,vns rock.
inc ON my seat in the cali dnsbino thronob
Illinois at terrific rate and keepinp nv
ewes fixed on the two bright lines of rail in
front of me. until they seemed like flashes
of lightning darling into NV brain. AsI
said before, could see only n short dis.
lance ahead ON account of the fog, but I
knew any observation of those bright lines.
any deviation from their straight course
meant terrible DANCER II not death TO my
precious load of human lives. So I sat
there with NV hand on the tbrott,e. and
oil ,a1 IN 10
utmost tension
~ forgot To saw that wa were nearly an
hour late leaving 81 Iouis and I had
orders To make mn this ,ost time Finally
we strnck n;eca of road which 7 knaw
extended in straipht line for over ten
miles. / felt relieved when we struck this
part of the road and turning to the fireman
| shouted. Good track ahead Tom I'm
going to let her ont, He nodded hack nj
me and | pulled omen the valve. I eould
feel the engine tremble with new motion
as she leaned forward like hounded deer
and in another second il seemed as IL we
were not even toucbing the rails Anon,
half way down this stretch of STRAIGHT road
there was n station and a niece If s;de.trock
for switch-of freight cars. There we've
always from three to n dozen cnrs standing
there. As we annrooched this no;nt /
thought of the siding and could not helm
saving TO myself What II that switch
should be misplaced y The words were
hardly formulated in INV mind when sud-
denly the two bright lines in front of me
diverged, and for q moment looked like
four. Great God, cried the switch is
OPEN There was sudden swerve of the
engine to the left and n loud ereaking
noise, and, in desperation, | reversed the
lever, shut the throttle and waited with
closed ewes and SUSPENDED breath the shock
which i felt was coming Yon can not
conceive the supreme agony of that awful
moment. 1t was too mnch for me or any
other man 10 stand. The last thing | re-
membered was seeing the sn,rks ey back