Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-06-10
PERILs OF THE TRAIN.


PERILS OF THE TRAIN.
Pursued By n Fiood-A Race for Lille
Saved by Man With Match.
N. Y. Mail and Express.
The snow was falling fast and it was
terribly cold when a reporter for the
Mail and Express, partly to get shell
ter and partly in search of story,
wandered into the engine house of one
of the railroads running into Jersey
City. Eight smoking engines were
standing at their several stations, and
the firemen were busy cleaning up. A
group of men were standing near one
OF the engines getting little warmth
from its fire. 1t took but glance to
tell they were engineers, and the re-
porter approached with the idea OF
hearing some of their yarns.
We've got no stories to tell you
here" said one of the men. 1--WE new
er have hair-breath escapes and al
ways run on time"
/ sOHicNlult you
have met with some interesting epi-
| sode while on the road; some fast run
or narrow escape, where but for your
/ presence OF mind the train would have
been wrecked. Can't you recall any?"
Say, boys, we can tell few yarns, :"
said an old engineer named Bradley.
Here, you"-turning to the reporter
make yourself comfortable on this
engine, and you fellows Just sit down
somewhere, and we'll kill time by tell
ing stories. Well just light our pipes
and make ourselves comfortable for
| awhile. Now, shall begin? Harry
Shaw, you get ready to follow"
Pipes were lit and all waited for
Bradley's story. He waited for some
minutes, sending out huge clouds of
tobacco smoke while thinking, and
then said:
1--WE got it, boys"
"Some years ago was an engineer
on the Atkinson, Topeka & Santa Fe
railroad, and was attached to the
mail train running from Topeka to
Santa Fe, distance of 50m!ies. My
part OF the trip was from Santa Fe to
Kit Carson, the junction, where /
would rest day and then bring the
returning train back. The country
down there is very mountainous and
wild, and is made dangerous by a
| number of circumstances, chief among
\ them being the washouts that fire.
! quently take place in the spring after
the thaws and spring rains. The time of
my story was in the spring, and the
usual wet weather had lasted ten days.
| Up to that time we had not experienced
much trouble from it, but a washout
was daily expected. Well, we left
Santa Fe early one Tuesday morning
Il remember it was Tuesday, because
the fireman, who was my nephew, was
to be married two days later, and
that was Thursday. The train was
composed of one sleeper, a drawing
room car, two baggage cars, the mail
car and two passenger cars. The
train was well filed. We made good
| time, and all went well until about
| noon, and we were about getting
| through the Ration Mountains. Sud
| denly Jim-that's the fireman-asIed
me to look back and see what | could
make out in the distance. Iglanced
in the direction he pointed and saw a
| long line of mist that seemed to be
rolling down the billy land and right
in our track.
81 could not make out what it was
from the engine and so told Jim to go
back into the cars and see if he could
make out what it was. When first /
saw this mist it was agood three miles
| of, and when Jim had gone back j
looked again and saw it was gaining
rapidly on us. / couldn't make out
what it was and so kept on watching
| it. Sometimes | fancied / could hear
| roaring noise coming from it. We
were going about thirty-five miles an
hour then. Suddenly Jim came rush.
ing back and cried out, It's a wash
out. The water from the melted SHOWS
has rushed down the mountain and is
after us. 1t is tearing everything be.
fore it and is overhauling fast. The
Superintendent says go ahead and stop
for nothing. had my hand on the
lever at the time. To jerk open the
throttle was the work of moment.
With a terrible bound the engine sprang
forward, jerking the cars behind
it. From that moment began a
race for life. On We went at a
terrible pace Sixty miles an hour
were soon left behind, but the water
gained on us fast. Coal was poured
| into the furnace to make the fire fiercer
| and we struck seventy-tive mile rate
OF speed. 1t was a question whether
we could reach the billy ground in
| front OF us before the avalanche reach
ed us. 1t was but quarter of a mile
behind us, and was tearing up the
track as if it were made of straw.
More coal and more water were put
on, and an eighty mile an hour speed
was attained. We had but short
distance to go and the water was only
200 yards behind. It's speed, how.
ever was lessening, and-well, to make
the story short, we reached the hill
safely. The engine was eased up and
the train stopped. The passengers
had been terribly iolted and brighten.
ed, and many OF of the ladies had
tainted, but we soon got all right
again. and we finished the journey in
safety"
Harry Shaw told the next story.
He said: Boys many people think
| that an engineer does not have much
| to do, and that he has an easy Job,
with very few hardships. They think
| that we have but to sit in our cab and
let the enginerun between stations and
can almost go to sleep. Twas driving
a train filled with passengers once
over the Baltimore & Ohio road. The
road lay through the Alleghanies, where
you know there are a number of tres
| tie bridges over the many little rivers
OF that part 1t was a terrible night;
the rain poured down in torrents and
| the wind howled. | was keeping a
| sharp lookout for the signals, which
were very difficult to see, the night was
| so thick. We were going along at a
fair speed and were approaching one
of these bridges. 1t stood over preci-
pice about ninety feet high, at the
base OF which ran very rapid river.
| Suddenly | saw ahead, about 100
| yards off, a little burst OF flame
about the size of match when it
is first struck. 1t fiickered just a
moment and then went out. What
could it mean? Some one must be
right on the track. Thoughts flashed
through my mind like lightning, and
| then as quick as thought | shut off
steam and put the brakes hard on.
The train slid for some distance to the
! bridge. Both the fireman and / got
down, and the first thing we discovered
was that the bridge had been washed
away. We had stopped Just in time
or you newspaper men would have
had good story of big railroad ac-
cident. We next hunted round to see
who struck the light and found farm
laborer. He had come down on to
the track to walk across the bridge
and found it washed away; knowing
our train was about due he set to
- 4 -. = L l.