The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-09-04
LIVELY RAILROADING.
EXCITING WORK FOR THE ENGINEERS
OF THE CALUMET BRANCH.
A Road that Winds Around q Mountain
and Rises 400 Feet in a Milc--The
Way the Train Comes Down-A Leap
Into :. Canyon g, 900 Feet Deep.


Way the Train Comes Down-A Leap
Into a Canyon 1000 Feet Deep.
Its a short seven miles from Hecla station
in Browns canyon, ON the Denver and Rio
Grandc railway, to Calumet in the mOuO-
tains, said "A former employe of that road,
"but when you get to Calumet you are Just
half "a mile higher up in the world than you
We're at Hecia. That little branch has the
heaviest curves and the steepesst grades Of any
railroad that USES the ordinary drive wheel
locomotive tn run its cars III the known world.
A grade of aO feet To the mile and "a fifteen
degree curve-and that's almost like taking
the same track back when the ears round it
are common ON what Is known as the Noun
tain division of the Rio Grande road; but the
Calumet branch hasn't grade on it less than
400 feet to the mile, and a twenty-five degree
curve isn't any trick at all That little road
winds up the face of the mountain gulches for
all the world as if it were an immense snake
twisting and coiling itself in the most ca.ri-
cious manner.
foBoGGANING ON THE RAIL
Il worked on the perpendicular string Of
rails for three weeks. They called it carry
ing the hod out there when you hire out to
work ON the Calumet branch, for it's about
as near like climbing a ladder from the side
walk to the top of a building as anything you
ever saw. | might have worked longer ut 1t,
because 1 rather like the excitement, but one
day when We started from Calumet to whisk
down to Hecla with a locomotive, seven cars
an engineer fireman and seven brakemen,
and arrived there with one and the brake
man that on it in just ten minutes-the
car being the one rode on and the brakeman
myself concluded that would engage in
something where there was less risk, and went
out with a party hunting Sioux Indians
You see, the water brake on the engine and
the steam brake on the cars got a little out of
kilter when we wee about half way down,
and the hand bral3 didn't seem to answer the
the twist very we'll, and from that time on a
streak of lightning couldn't have caught on
behind rs. One after another the locomotive
and six Of the cars shot OFF of the curves and
took short route To the bottom of the
canyon. l don't know how it ever happened,
but my car stayed on the rails, and dropped
down into Hecia like "a meteoroite.
swell no; they don't make a business of
carrying passengers on that Jacobs ladder of
q road, but guess they'll let any one ride if
he thinks he can hold his breath long enough
to make the trip down the gulch. Calumet
isn't much of place, being principally a
hematite iron mine. The ore is very rich,
and the Bcssenier furnaces at Puebia must
have it. don't know who ever struggled up
there and found the mine, but there it is,
couldn't build "A gravity road To it because
the route up the canyon Is 50 everlastingly
crooked There wasn't one railroad engineer
out III "a hundred, hardly, that thought a loco
motive could ever ascend and descend the
mountain and handle the cars safely, but
there no other possible way to get at the
mine. aud they cut the road along the face of
the canyon and began u experiment. The
road is gauge One. When they
little the hvcliest piece of railroad property
in the universe then there is no evidence of
the fact ia about S.asp,O worth of old iron,
incapacitate,l locomotive boilers, car wheels
and timhers, smokestacks, air brakes, hand
brakes and sundry other disinteSrated spcci-
mems of rolling stock that lie heaped at the
bottom OF the canyon all alon, the seven
mics of tbs cloud sweeping line.
C.AsHINH TOGETHER IN MID AIR.
-Ihe train couldn't get the hang of
toboy.yaring ON ;le,iS down this gulch along
at first. ..Ed I,egs wasn't IA day passed but
spectators down below would catch n sudden
CHIMP III train up the face of the noun
tain - 1t Lii,iI,i like IA thunderbolt from the
Iaor.,. at rock cut, flying with the
speti % ~, wind, kept straight on its course,
unai,a t. .i,w the windngs Of the track,
am! La. ! L., ,il1nG from the precipice, loco
motive &C., crashing together i'll mid air,
grim i:5 tl....r,iV, Into million fragments,
and a.. .,lrlIg down ia one great heap of
rain, q, -. 'tt0m of the canyon, at least
2,tuJ i,,t l. i,w. Then they knew at Hecia
thu; "a, l..-.-,,, lad lost their grip, and that
thr ir.lI l..I refused to wait for repairs. The
fellow ;..,l., lg.liy managed to jump when
they iuuI.i iLc air brake had gone back on
them AMI tllyre We're more broken bones car
ric,i down that mountain, ON their way to
Hecli, to Ia nlended, the first year this lively
road YVES opened for business than they gen.
orally luz OH OF a fair sized battlefield. This
Calumet branch Is 81 unpopular with the
officers al the Rio Granle that only two Of
them ever experienced "A ride upon it from
the clouds to the earth That was some years
ago, and they never tried it again. Now
when the other officers want to enjoy the
trip they sit down and listen To the story Of
the two who tried il, and turn pale and 60
home satisfied
'Wcil, after awhile, they got the way Of
moving trains successfully ON the road They
found that, first, they must use locomotives
of extraordinary weight, and, second, they
must man the trains only with men who
would stand at their posts at all hazards
There IL a brakeman ON every car. The cars
are something like coal cars and carry five
tons Of each. They are equipped with
air brakes and strong hand brakes. The loco
motive drivers are checked by the powerful
hydraulic brake. 1t takes an hour and n
half to make the trip from Hecla to the mine
summit. The down trip is made in about fif-
teen minutes When the train starts from
the mine every brakeman stands with his
hands on his brake The air brakes are tight
ly set The water brakes get their tightest
grip on the locomotive wheels. The locomo-
tive itself runs with the throttle reversed
Yet against all this friction the train thunders
down the mountain, shooting around the
sharp curves, and dashing through narrow
rock cuts many Of them curved almost double,
at the rate Of n mile every two minutes The
men who man the hand brakes must be sim
ply bundles of muscles and nerves Their posi-
tive Instructions are To work their brakes
whenever the air brakes fail, and To stand at
their post in the face of every risk and dan
ger Ii happens not few times III the cours.
of a Wear that thesss fearless fellows have to