St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-28
ADVENTURES ON THE RAIL.
Three Colorado Trainmen Tea Of ,-nriJling
Experiences in Their Railroading
Career.
A Passenger Train Blown From the Track
"A Runaway Locomotive Among
the Mountains
Denver Cor. of the N. Y. Sun.

Denver Cor Of the N. Y. Sun.
Railroading in Colorado, always attended
with more or less danger, has been unusually
exciting during the past few months One
or two passenger trains and no end oil 1relght
trains have been blown from the track, and
half dozen locomotives have gone wild on
steep grades in various parts OF the state.
| party of railroad men formed circle around
a red-hot fire in a caboose in the Denver and
Rio Grande yards last evening, and enter
tanned each other with "reminiscences of their
| lives on the road. After the recent disaster
| on the Colorado Central, near Georgetown,
had been discussed, Engineer Furey observed
that he had had some experience with wind
storms that were powerful enough to blow
trains off the track.
''That curve this side of Georgetown is the
meanest point on the entire road" he said.
''Pve been by there in summer, when there
wasn't any air stirring, and when 1 got just
that point blast would come sweeping
down the gulch that would blow my dinner
pail out of the cab. Years ago that used to
be great place for
DOING Up STAGES.
They'd come along unsuspectingly until
they struck that tornado that always seems
to come down from the mountains at that
point and over they'd go, driver, horses,
passengers baggage and all. Three or four
trains have been wrecked there in the same
way.
''The time I am speaking of it was blowing
pretty hard everywhere, and my fireman said
it might 90 hard with us when we got to the
hole. l concluded to slack up little as L
approached, for every now and then hunk
of coal or broom would be whisked out OF
my cab like as if it was a feather We came
to full stop and then proceeded slowly. AS
we came opposite the mouths of the various
gulches the wind was like a tornado, and
awful cold! We had to hang fast for dear
life l felt the machine wabbling a little, and
two or three times she was that near going
over that a baby could have tipped her if he'd
leaned against her. l was getting along in
great shape, and involuntariy bearing down
as hard as could, when all of a sudden there
was humping and then a crash The three
rear cars had gone over, broken loose, and
ROLLED DOWN THE BANK.
got the engine to place of safety and
then went back. Nearly everybody in the
cars was hurt, but no one was killed. l re-
signed the next day, and I've never been
across that stretch of track sjnce.'
II don't know sail Jim Kennedy,
brakeman, ''whether it is worse to get blown
off the track or thrown off. I've had both Of
them experiences, and don't like either, but
of the two I guess it's little mite easier to
be blown off. Three years ago next spring
we were coming up on the Denver u Rio
Grande with heavy train of twenty freight
| J,St IN no Grade Mar
shall Pass we set the brakes tight as usual,
and prepared to go down slow. The wheels
ground pretty well for few minutes, but
after little there was atremendOus whistling
for brakes. / grabbed one and set it SO
tight that John l.. Sullivan couldn't loosen
it,aud then | made a dive for another. got
two or three more set when | noticed the
train was going faster and faster, and that I'd
got to let 90 the brakes or ditch the rear cars.
l had to get sledge from the caboose to do
it, but, fetched them after awhile. | could
see that something was wrong with the engine,
and l afterward learned that the
AIR BRAKE HAD GIVEN OUT.
Well, if we didn't 60 down that gradei
mile minute wasn't circumstance to it.
! The noun tains all ran together like a fine
tooth comb, and the only way could get my
breath was to hold my hat over my mouth.
| There's curve down at the bottom of the
grade that is good deal like a right angle
| whitfield off and l knew if we struck that
place going at any such speed we were gone.
| | hung on to brake handle and prepared to
Jump. Just as the locomotive struck the
curve | saw the engineer and fireman Jump,
and moment later the engine turned
somersault as handy as man, striking on
| its back That was enough for me. Before
the slack got to the car ] was on | made
dive and nearly broke my back, but / could
hear the cars ping up down below me- The
! engineer broke his leg, and one of the brake
men was pretty badly cut up, but the rest OF
us got out Of it all right. 1t was a bad mix
up for the company, though. Nearly every
car was worse than useless, and it took them
| two weeks to clear up the wreck"
Reuben Fielding, an engineer on the South
Park road said he had experienced wind
| storms, and
HAD GONE WILD
on steep grades, but the worst time we ever
had was two years ago on the high line to
Leadville.
owed been troubled with the snow all the
way up" he said: ''but we thought we'd get
through. The further up we got, however,
the worse the drifts became, and it got so
after while that we couldn't tell whether
we were on the track or humping it along on
the rocks. 1t got dark, and the storm in
creased in severity until It seemed as though
the snow was being shoveled down on us.
! Finally we got stuck, and before we could
| back out slide occurred that covered the rear
cars about fifty feet deep. Then we couldn't
move either way The longer we stayed there
the more certain it became that that train
could never get out Of there until spring; and
| after all the cars had been well-nigh buried
we decided to abandon them That was a
| mighty risky piece of business The storm
was something terrific. We couldn't see ten
feet ahead, and every little while we would
| 20 in up 10 our ears and something deeper
| vet. We had TO go twelve miles Of about the
| hardest travelling you ever saw this side OF
! Jordan, and II wore ten pounds OF flesh OIL
! of me in doing it. ! couldn't move for
week after that. They didn't see the train
again for two months, and when the snow
went off it came near being knocked over
with the slides. The rust was an inch deep
on the iron, and most Of the paint had been
worn off; but we gave It a good dose of
grease, and got her INTO Leadville in great
shape along about the middle OF April"