Morning journal and courier., 1886-05-31
A Wild Engine Behind. |.


 had 8 run out of Columbus, Ohio, ten o1 twelve years ago, and several things cen- spired to bring about the incident am about to relate. had passenger run of nine hours, beginning at 7 o'clock p. m. For nearly three years I had locomotive named after railroad official, "Ben Davis," and got to know that piece of machinery better than any man ever knew his horse. You may buy two watches of the same make, of the same time, and while one will keep excellent time and give good satisfaction the other win have off spells. It is the same with two locomotives. When "Ben Davis" would make regular trips day after day for months without giving me the least trouble or want ing a cents worth of repairs, other loco motives from the same shop were in the hands of the repaiIers as often as out on the road.
 One of our freight engineers was a man named George Roby. He came on to our road from some line in New England, and gave good satisfaction for about three months. Then whiskey got the better of him and he went to the dogs. One day, after his fire man had brought the train into Columbus, with Roby drunk and asleep on the floor of the cab he got his blue envelope. The idea somehow lodged in his head that the officials were down on him, and he swore he would have revenge for being discharged. One af- ternoon he turned up down the road and was noticed to be drinking heavily and to have the bearing of man bent on some desper- ate deed. This was at station eighteen miles from Columbus and on a gleomy April evening. was due there at 7:2S and it was a two minute stop. A mixed freight always side-tracked there for us to pass and then followed us down the line.
 IT-11 a1 on time as usual, having baggage, express and three coaches. It began to drizzle just before we reached the station, and saw that we were in for dark night and 8 slippery track. did not see Roby nor did anyone tell me that he had shown up there. I mo- ticed that the freight train was unusually long and that it was pulled by one of the biggest engines on the road. Three or four people got of and perhaps many got on and we were off on the second, It was 8 run of seven miles to the next stop and my schedule was thirty-seven miles an hour. We had not yet come to 8 standstill at the next stop when the telegraph operator, whose face called to me:
 t'There's wild engine behind you-for heav-"
 He ran back to the conductor and in ten seconds that official rushed up and shouted to me:
 lt's a fundWaJ onSlne-Pul1 out Ut once!
 He yelled "AH aboardI' sprang for the steps of car and away we went, some of the people getting of or on being flung down as they jostled each other. As we left the station where the freight was side tracked a brakeman ran down the track to open the switch. As he did 90 Roby mounted the en- zine with cooked revolver in hand and he drove the engineer and fireman of. He had previously uncoupled her from the train without being detected. He ran the engine out on the main line and half mile beyond. Then he filled up the fire box, saw that she had plenty of water, pulled the throttle wide open and jumped off. That was how we came to have 6 runaway engine behind us. As soon as the engineer was driven from the cab he ran to the station and informed the operator, and about the time the runaway started off we got the news. We were about six miles ahead of her. That meant about six minutes.
 When I pulled out I supposed the pro- gramme was for some of the station folks to run down and open the switch 50 that the runaway would be ditched, but it appeared that the agent was so dreadfully rattled that he did not attempt this step until too late. The switch was forty rods from the station, and just as an employe reached it the runa,