Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-04-16
Chased BIZ EiameS.

~ don't expect TO live much longer,
and after an dead want you to put
in the papers the story Of that ride l
had from Prospect To Brocton in 1862"
The speaker was Duff Brown, an old
locomotive engineer, who was lying ut
his home in Portland, this county,
dying with consumption. This was
several weeks ago. On the 9TH of this
month he died. He was nearly 60 wears
old. His story of tho awful ride is
this
I'm 1869 l was running mixed
train on the Buffalo, Cory q Erie Rail-
way. The track between Prospect or
Mayville Summit and Brocton juno
ton is so crooked that, while the dis
lance is actually only ten miles, the
curves make il by rail fourteen. The
grade for the whole distance is over
seventy feet TO the mile.
"About nine o'clock on the night of
August H. 1862 we reached the Sum-
NIT with train of two passenger cars,
six oil cars and n box car. The latter
contained two valuable trotting horses,
and their keepers with them, on their
way, believe, to the Cleveland meet
ing. There were fifty or sixty passen-
gers in the two cars. got the signal
from the conductor to start, and /
pulled out. We had got under consid-
cradle Roadway when, looking back, l.
saw that an oil car in the middle of the
train was on fire. / reversed my en-.
CINE and whistled for brakes. The
conductor and brakemen jumped of.
They uncoupled the passenger cars and
set the brakes on them, bringing them,
TO stop. Surprising 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 do it, intend
ing to ran 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 following me at
a speed that was rapidly increasing.
The men had not succeeded in putting
on the brakes. | saw that the only
thing to be done was to run for 1t 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 by this time
-plunging after me, and only few
feet away, pulled the throttle open.
The oil cars caught me, though, before
| got away. They came with full
force against the rear of the box car,
smashing in one end and knocking the
horses and their keepers flat on the
| floor. The heat was almost unbeara-
bic, and do my best, couldn't place
more than thirty feet between the pur-
suing column of fire and ourselves. BY
the light from the furnace as my fire.
man opened the door to pile in the coal
/ caught sight of the face of one of tho
horsemen in the box car, he having
climbed up to the grated opening in the
end. II was as pale rs death, and he
begged me for Gods sake to give her
more steam. l was giving her then all
the steam she could carry, and the
grade itself was enough to carry us
down ut the rate of fifty miles an hour.
We went so fast that the engine could
not pump. Every time we struck one
of those curves the old girl would al
most run on one set of wheels, and why
in the world she didn't topple over is
something l never could understand.
| She seemed to know that it was race
of life and death, and worked as if she
were alive.
1.-THE night was dark, and the road
ran through woods, deep rock cuts, and
along high entertainments. There we
were, laundering along at n lightning
speed, and only a few PAGES behind us
that fiery demon in full pursuit. There
were fifty thousand gallons of oil in
those tanks at least, and it was all in
flame. making flying avalanche of
fire five hundred feet long. The flames
leaped into the air nearly hundred
| feet. Their roar was like that of some
great cataract. Now and then a tank
would explode with noise like can
non, when column of flame and pitch
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.
"Wcll, it wasn't long, going at the
rate we made, before the lights of Broc-
ton came in sight down in the valley
The relief | felt when these came in
view was short lived, for remembered
that train No. 8 on the Lake Shore
would be due ut the junction Just about
the time we would reach it. No. 8 was
the Cincinnati express. Our only hope
all along during the race had been
that the switchman ut the juno
ton would think far enough to open
the switches there, connecting the
cross-cut track with the Lake Shore
track, and let us run in on the latter,
where the grade would be against us,
if ANYTHING, and where we could soon
get out of the way of the oil cars. The
switch, of course, would be closed now
for the express, and our last hope was
gone, unless the express was late, or
somebody had sense enough to flag it.
While we were thinking of this we saw
the express tearing along toward the
junction. Could we reach the junction,
get the switch, and the switch be set
back for the express before the latter
got therep If not there would be an
Inevitable crash in which not only we,
but probably scores of others, would be
crushed to death All this coniecturing
did not occupy two seconds, but in that
two seconds lived years.
"'Good Godr | said to my fremen,
'what are we to do nowP
"Thc fireman promptly replied-and
he was brave little fellow-that l
should whistle for the switch and take
the chances. did so. That whistle
was one prolonged yell of agony. 1t
was shrek that seemed to tell us that
our brave old engine knew our danger
and had her fears. Neither the fire.
man nor myself spoke another word.
"My fireman and were so weak
when we brought our locomotive to q
stop that we could not get out of the
cab. The two horsemen were uncon-
scous in the box car. The horses were
ruined. And how long do you think
we were in making sixteen milesP We
ran two miles up to the Lake Shore
track. Just twelve minutes from the
Summit to the spot where we stopped!
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