The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1885-04-25
A RACE WITH FIRE.
THE STORY OF AFEARFUL RAIL
ROAD RIDE.
Eighty Miles an Hour over q
Crooked Track, Pursued by
Hungry Fium IS

Hungry Flames
DrNKlnK. n. Y, April n. 1 don't ex-
poet to live much longer, aud after nm
dead want you to put m the papers
the story Of that ride h,d from Pros
pect to Broclon In 1869
The speaker Vac Dun Brown, an old
locomotive engineer. Nho WHs lying ut
his home in Portland, ll,isouuuty. dying
with consumption. HITS was several
months ago. On the an instant he
died. lie was nearly 40 wears old, aud
one Of the oldest engine, SIN the United
States. His story OF the awful ride is
this:
lin lSGg was running u train on the
Buffalo. Cory and Erie railroad. The
track from Prospect ur May lille sum
nit, to Brocton junction l. 80 crooked
that. while the distance b, actually only
10 miles, the curves make II 10y rail II.
The grade for the whole dislunur Is over
~ feet to the mile About . o'clock on
the night Of August II. l~G9. We reached
the summit with II train oitNup ssrngcr
cnrs, Fix oil cars and u box ear. The lat
ter contained two valuable irOttiug
horses and their kerpere with them, uii
their way. | believe. to Chicago. There
were ~ or so passengers iu ihc tNo cars.
| got the signal from the conductor To
start, and pulled out. Ne hpd rot I'M
der considerable hrAdwty. Nhrn.luuklng
back. saw an oil Cur in the md L. oi
the train was on fire. reversed the
engine and whistled for brakes. The
conductor and bruhemcn jumped oil.
Il NIL
sci the brakes ON them aud brought
them to stop. Surprising that the
brakes ON the burning oil cars would al
81 be put on, called to n brakeman on
the box ear tOdraw the coupling pin be-
tween that ear and the head oil
tank. backing So that he could dc II, in
tending 10 run far enough to save the
box car and the locomotive. As ! ran
down the hill after the pin had been
drawn, what was my horror to see TINT
the burning cars were following me nj
speed that was rapidly increasing.
The men had not succeeded IN putting
on the brakes. | saw thai the only thing
| that could be done was to run for II to
BrOcton. and the chances were TINT we
would never reach there at the speed mt
which we would be obliged to make
around those sharp, reverse curves
where We had never run over 20 miles
nm hour. When ! saw the flaming cars
for the whole six were on lire by THIS
! -pluuging after me. and only al 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, smash
| ing in one end and Knocking
| the horses and their keepers HAT
on the floor. The heat was almost
/ Il "a. la, haef I amid
not put more than thirty feet between
| the pursuing fire and ourselves. BY the
| light from the furnace. rs the fireman
| opened the door TO pile In the coal.
caught sight OF the face of one of the
hOrsemen. he having crawled up TO the
grated opening In the end. Ii was rs
pale us death. and he begged me for
Gods sake to give her more steam. |
was giving her then all the steam she
could carry. and the grade Itself was
sufficient TO carry III down nj the rate OF
fifty miles an hour. We went so fast
that the engine refused to pump. Every
time we struck one Of those curves the
old girl would run on almost one set of
wheels, and why in the world she did
not toppe over is something | never
could understand She seemed to know
that IL WAS u race of life or death, and
worked as If she were alive. The night
was dark and the road ran through
woods. deep rock cuts; and along
high emhuukmrnts We were thun-
dering along at lightning speed,
and only few PAGES behind us
that fiery demon in iuIl pursuit There
were 5000 gallons of oil in those tanks
at least. and II was all In flames, making
a living avalanche of 800 feet long. The
flames lraped into the air nearly 100 feet.
. f..f
aract Now and then tank would eX-
plude with noise like cannon, when
volume Of flame and pitchy smoke
would rise high above the body Of flame
and showers OF burning oil would be
scattered about In the woods. The whole
country was lighted up for miles around.
Well, 1t wasn't long, going at the rate
we made, before the lights OF Brocton
came in sight down the valley. The re-
| lief felt when these came In view was
short lived, for ! remembered that Train
: on the Lake shore would be at the
| junction about the time we would reach
| H. Eight was the Cincinnati express.
| our only hope all along the race had been
| that the swilchman at the junction would
| think far enough to open the
| switch there connecting the crOss-cut
track with tho Lake shore track, and
| let us RON in on the latter where the
grade would be against us, II anything,
and where we would soon get out of the
way of the oil cars. The switch would
he closed now for the express. and our
last hope was gone unless the express
was late or some one had sense enough
to flag the express. While We were
| thinking of this we saw the train tear
ing along toward the junction. Could
we reach the junction, get the switch
and the switch be set back for the eN-
press before the latter got there? lfnot.
there would be an inevitable crash. in
which not only we, but scores OF others
would be crushed to death. All this
cOuiecturing did not occupy two sounds,
but in these two sounds | lived years.
Good | said to my fireman. what nrp
We to doy' The fireman promptly re-
plied-and he was n brave little fellow
that | should whistle for the switch and
take the chances. ! did so. That wills
lie was one prolonged yell OF agony. II
was shrek that seemed to tell VA that
our brave old engine know our danger
and had its fears. Neither
the fireman nor myself spoke
another word. Thanks to God
the engineer on the express train, see.
ing us tearing down that mountain with
an eighth Of u mile Of fire in close pur
suit of MS, knew In moment that only
one thing could save us. lie whistlet
for brakes and got his train on n stand
still not 10 feet from the switch. Tn,
switchmun now answered our signal ant