Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-04-14
STOKES OF THE RAIL.
locomotives That Love and Hate and Ex-
hibit Other Human Passions.

Jnolu SOu0UllneS Wnen L beIloVeu Inoy
were actually human. They get the
sulks and have balky streaks, and
when they re in such moods you can't
make time with them any more than
you can fly. Then again they'll be as
clipper and willing as thoroughbred
horse, and you actually have to hold
'em IN to keep from running into sta
tons ahead of time
81 suppose the stubbornest loco
motive that was ever put on a road was
one of the Twin Sisters, a couple of
splendid machines built by the New
York Central few years ago. They
were made exactly alike in every par
ticular, from the same patterns, by the
same workmen and with the same ma
terials There wasn't a man ON the
road that could tell which was which
until their numbers were painted on
them. They were beauties, and the
engineers who were assigned to duty
on them were the envy of all the boys.
When the engines were put on trial one
of the locomotives developed amazing
power and speed. She could take a
freight train up a grade with scarcely
an effort, and with passenger train
made fifty miles an hour with ease.
The other one wouldn't go at all. Even
when pulled wide open she would
simply give few spiteful puffs of black
smoke, few turns of her driving
wheels, and then would stop. The
way she exhausted steam showed that
she was a vixen. She was taken apart,
and not single thing could be found
wrong with her mechanism. Different
parts of the locomotive that was SO
great success were exchanged for the
same parts in the stubborn one. The
willing locomotive ran as well as ever,
but the stubborn one refused to move
peg. They tried half dozen different
engineers on her-for you must know
that sometimes a locomotive is par
ticular about the man that handles her
throttle, and will do work for one that
she refuses to do for another; but she
treated them all with equal disdain.
They put her in the round house and
kept her there for six months, thinking
that she might get over her balky fit,
and run all right on another trial.
Zone day they fired her up and tried
her. She started off like beauty, and
ran two miles in little over two min
utes. Then she stopped, and couldn' t
be induced to make move in either
direction. She was towed back to the
shops and taken to pieces. The same
machinery was used in building anoth-
er locomotive, and that one was as big
a success as the mate of the stubborn
engine, and when | last heard of her
she was still one of the best engines on
the road.
lit sounds queer to say that locomo-
tives have their likes and dislikes, but
it actually does seem that they have,
and there are few engineers who don t
believe it. There isn't railroad man
who can't tell you instances by the
dozen of engines that positively would
not make time with some engineers,
but which would get there every time
under the hands of others. You might
say it was the fault of the engineers if
the engines did not make their time,
but have known the very best engi-
neers that ever mounted the footboard
who have been obliged to be transferred
from locomotives placed in their charge
because the locomotives would not
make the time, but which, under the
hand of other engineers neither as
skillful nor so experienced, would never
run behind.
''Take the case OF Josh Martin and
Cad Lyman, two of the old-time Erie
engineers, and either of them without
a superior in their day. Josh was run
ming a locomotive that he was greatly
attached to, and the sequel proved that
the attachment was mutual. For some
reason or other the superin tandent OF
the road wanted Josh's locomotive for
use on a portion of the road that Ly-
man ran on, SO he ordered Lyman and
Martin to exchange engines. The old
fellows who remember it say that when
Josh's engine was run from Port Jer-
Wis Josh cried like baby, and that the
engine herself was all broke up at the
parting, for she was an hour longer
than she should have been in getting
to her new field of labor Cad Lyman
took charge of her; but she made up
her mind that she wouldn't work I'M
der him, and she didn't. She got
stalled with the lightest trains, and
never made her run on time. After a
weeks trial Lyman reported the loco
motive No good, and she was con-
demned to run the gravel train. She
worked as balky and sulky as ever, and
the superintendent ordered her taken
to Paterson and broken up. Josh Mar
tin heard of this and came down the
road a-fying. He begged to have his
'old gal back again, and finally the
superintendent said he might try her.
Josh mounted the foot-board once
more, and when he pulled the throttle
away she went like bird. She made
the run to Port Jervis quicker than
any locomotive had ever done it up to
that day, and Josh Martin ran her for
years over the Delaware division after
that, and always made his run on time
as easy as could be, except in cases of
accident. No, sir; the fact of the mat
ter was, Josh and that engine just
loved one another, and simply would
not be parted; anu there are plenty Of
cases just like it to-day.-N. Y. Sun.
Mr.. Henry M. Stanley, the African
explorer, relates that when he started
on his tour through the Ozark Conti-
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