Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-20
A WILD CHASE.
Row Engineer scherer stopped Runa-
way Engine.

way Engine.
Three Wabash locomotives Yesterday
morning played quite an amusing game
of catch, says the st. Louis Republican of
Feb. 10, and one which, had it not been
for the presence of mind displayed by one
of the engineers, Mr.. Schrever, might
have been attended with disastrous con-
sequences. Engine No. 116S came down
from Decatur on Wednesday evening
drawing a special car, in which rode Su-
perintendent Talmage and 9TH
er Wabash officials. This en-
CINE remained over night in St.
Louis, and yesterday morning started
back for Decatur as a light engine. Ar
irving at the bridge junction, about
mile above the Relay depot, the engine
halted, and the engineer got off and went
up the tower and INTO the telegraph office
for telegraph orders. While he was up
there the outgoing morning passenger
train from st. Louis, drawn
by engine No. 1869, hove
in sight and was approaching at a high
rate of speed and upon the same track on
which stood the empty engine. Though
the engineer of the approaching passen-
ger train shut off steam and applied the
air brakes, it was evident that the train
could not be stopped before it struck the
empty locomotive. 1t was also impOssi-
BILE for the engineer of the empty to get
from the telegraph to his engine before
the clash, and so his fireman boarded the
empty, pulled her throttle clear open and
then jumped off. The engine had not OBJ
tanned much momentum before the
passenger ran into her. The tender was
stove in, and the pilot of the passenger
engine was knocked off. The passenger
engine and train had now stopped, but
the light or empty eRgine was beginning
to operate well under the manipulation
given her throttle by the fireman before
he jumped off. 1t was only minute
or two before she was running
at a terrific rate of speed, and was soon
tearing along through the country at the
rate of sixty miles an hour, with no one
about to curb her in her race against time.
1t would be hard to say what would have
become of her or what havoc she might
have played had 1t not been for a Wabash
switch engine, No. lilo, which was doing
some switching near Venice, and which
was standing on the main track as the
wild engine came in sight. The engineer
of the switch engine, Mr.. Scherer, saw
the approaching engine coming, and at
such a rate of speed that he concluded
that her engineer was either drunk, crazy
or dead, and tried to make a switch with
his engine ere the wild engine arrived.
But so fast did the coming engine seem
could not make the switch in time,
and he wisely resolved to start ahead
and see il he couldn't outrun the
runaway. The race was an interesting
one tor a considerable distance, and the
spectators in Venice and along the road
could not imagine what the chase
meant. Finally the wild engine came up
with Engineer Sherer's locomotive, but
the two were now going at nearly the
same rate of speed, and the conclusion
was, in consequence, very light and no
damage was done. Then Scherer reversed
his engine and let the runaway push him
along. He next walked back over the
tender Of his engine, got upon the wild
engine, reached her cab in safety, and
shut off the steam on the wild engine and
applied the air brakes. In short time
he had both engines at standstill, after
a wild and perilOus run of several miles.
Both engines were brought back to East
st. Louis, and the assembled railroad
men were greatly relieved when they
learned that the wild engine had been
corralled before any damage had been
done, and all were loud in their plaudits
to Engineer Scherer when it became
known how the capture had been made,
and he was the hero of the hour.