The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-11-08

In Locomotives Cab with Maniac En-
gineer-Five Feet Between Life and Death.

In Locomotives Cab with - Maniac En-
gineer-Five Feet Between Life and Death.
New York Mail and Express.
Locomotive engineers, as a general rule, would
rather do anything else than talk shop" and
you might have sat around the Rossmore Hotel
for hours while the 1862 delegates to the brother
hood convention were there three weeks and
never heard word about running an engine.
However, they do sometimes unlmber their re-
luctant tongues, and when they do their talk is
usually full of pth and moment. A small party
of friends who took few delegates to private
club-room, after Ned Harrigans entertainment
Monday night found this out when they got
George Tranor, a small, wiry, gray haired dele
gate from Illinois, talking about his experiences.
us has been some years now since have had
a real, genuine hair-raising scare on the foot
board" said Mr. Trainor. "Of course, have
been startled dozens of times. and frightened
once or twice when saw was running into q
creek or q gravel train. But haven't felt my
heart sink right down into my boots, and my
cap rise right off my head for ten years. The
last time was enough to last me for the rest OF
my life, too. / was running on the Lake Shore
road then, from Cleveland to Chicago. / had
taken job firing, with a big, brawny, six-foot
man at the throttle named Tom Applegate The
third trip made with Tom we were to take the
fast mail from Cleveland to Chicago. We had
No. GIL, the biggest and newest machine on
the road, and terror for speed. We
pulled out of Cleveland on time-at 1915,
on the darkest and gloomiest night l ever
saw. with four big mail and baggage cars and
five coaches and sleepers 1t was late in the fall
and the weather had been rainy for some time.
That night it poured down in steady flood, and
the darkness was so intense you couldn't dis
tinguish an object foot from your nose. l
noticed that Tom was unnaturallv silent and
seemed anxious and nervous, which was natural
enough, for the rains had softened the ground
and overfowed the streams and it was pretty
dangerous going. We logged along steadily at
forty-five or fifty miles an hour without ex-
changing a word, Tom watching the track closely
all the time. All of sudden he jumped from his
seat, opened the furnace door and gazed intently
for two or three minutes in at the fire, then he
looked at me and said spitefully:
$50 that's so, is it2
II looked at him in speechless amaZement
The glare of the furnace fell on his face, which
was horribly distorted, and his eyes glared at
me not all like Tom Applegate."
" so that's so, is itP he roared again.
Il thought he was drunk So, to humor him,
said. trying to laugh:
" oh, yes; that's so. Tom, that's so'
"'Well, them said he, make up that fire
there, and be quick about it.
II knew that the fire didn't need any making
up. but didn't dare say so, and began throwing
in the coal. The steam-gauge began to go up.
In moment or two more Tom got up and hung
the sedge hammer the safety valve. Then
the horrible thought came into my head that
Tom was crazy. No merely drunken engineer
would do that, no matter how drunk he
might be. Every few minutes Tom would get
up and gaze into the furnace again and say:
Why don't you throw some coal in there?
Don't you she's freezing to death2 Throw
some coal in there Or I'll throw you in to feed
the flames
"All the time we were going faster and faster,
and Tom now pulled her wide open. The engine
shot forward with a wild plunge, and away we
went. lurching from side to side over the uneven
tracks like drunken man, flying around curves,
dashing headlong over bridges, down grades and
past stations with frightful velocity. I tell you
what that was the awfulest ride I ever had
The road was double-tracked, SO there no
danger of meeting any train, but if we kept on
at that rate we would overtake one in very short
order. knew that there was freight not very
far ahead of US. What If we should dash into
it just as it was pulling to sde-track2
couldn't see how mothers son on the train
could be saved in such a frightful calamity
Even if we escaped the freight we could not pos
sibly keep the track at such a rate of speed l
tell you lived years in those few moments. All
the time we were flying along faster and faster,
whizzing past stations. crossings and roads with
out ever sackening speed or touching whistle,
while tae machine rocked and tumbled about as
though it were going over every minute. Tom
sat still, gazing lntently ahead, and ordering
more coal to DE thrown on the fire every FIVE
minutes. Once made movement to blow the
whistle, but as raised my arm Tom struck it a
blow that broke it right here by the elbow, and
fell half stunned on my seat.
The conductor must have understood that
something was wrong, for the bell rang two or
three times to stop, but Tom only laughed and
tore it out of the roof of the cab and flung it
away. Suddenly he yelled with all his might:
There she is again, can't you see herr pointing
steadily ahead There she is again! You bet,
I'll fix her this time and without another word
he dashed out of the front window Of the cab.
The next thing / knew the headlight flashed out
and we were rushing along in utter darkness. l
felt that something must be done. Struggling
up grasped the whistle valve in my uninjured
hand and began to blow the alarm. Almost the
next instant the maniac had me in his grasp, and
raised me up in his arms to dash me out of the
cab. AS l went up in the air l saw
the tail lights of the freight not
more than a mile ahead of us Just at
that instant the baggage-car door opened and 1
heard somebody shouting. and saw men stand
ing in the light AS the glare fell on the face of
the maniac he paused for a second then dropped
me like a rock, and with wild yell plunged off
the cab into the darkness. l jumped up, ierked
that hammer off the valve turned on the air
half the seats out of the passenger floors,
and landed seats and passengers in heaps at the
forward end. Then fell over in faint. We
stopped with our pilot not FIVE feet from the ca
boose of the freight train, they told me after
ward. Toms body was found half mile up the
track, torn all to pieces. Trackmen told me
that they never could understand how that train
kept the track that night. / don't know that
any more than l know Just why my hair has
been gray ever since that frightful ride, but
that's the fact, just the same"
"Reminiscences.