Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-04-16
THE WHIMS OF ENGINES.

lllI fiiiluuO VI AS1N ARs
LOCOMOTIVES THAT GET THE SuLkS
AND HAVE BALKY STREAKS.
An Account of the StuDborhest Engine
md DisliIes Between locomotive and
Engineers-Some Gases.
locomotives are funny things" said an
Erie engineer, land I've seen them m
times when 1 believed they were actually
human. They get the sulka 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 a thor
oughbred horse, and you actually have to
hold :em in to keep from running into sta
tions ahead of time.
II suppose the subbornest locomotive
that was ever put On a road was one of The
Twin Sisters a couple Of splendid ma
chimes built by the New York Central q
few years ago. They were made exactly
alike in every particular, from the same
patterns, by the same workmen, and with
the same materials. 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 en-
gsneers 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 owe and
speed. She could take a freight train up
a grade with scarcely an effort, and with a
passenger train made fifty miles an hour
with ease.
sPITEFuL PUFF OF BLACK SMOKE.
1.-THE other wouldn't go at all. Even
when pulled wide open she would simply
give a few spiteful puffs of black smoke, a
few turns OF her driving wheels, and then
would stop. The way she exhausted
steam showed she was q vixen. She was
taken apart and not a single thing could
be found wrong with her mechanism.
Different parts of the locomotive that was
so great a success were exchanged for the
same parts in the stubborn one. The will
ing locomotive ran as well as ever, but the
stubborn one refused to move q peg. They
tried half a dozen different engineers on
her-for you must know that sometimes q
locomotive is particular about the man
that handles her throttle, and will do
IVA M IA th0t ciiC w Ao " OLA
other; 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 a beauty, and ran two
miles in a little over two minutes. Then
she stopped, and couldn't be induced to
make a move in either direction. She was
towed back to the shops and taken to
pieces. The same machinery was used in
building another locomotive, and that one
was as big a success as mate of the
stubborn engine, and when I last heard of
her she was still one of the best engines on
the road.
Ut sounds queer to say that locomotives
have their likes and dislikes, but it actu-
ally does seem that they have, and there
are few engineers who don't believe it.
There isn't a railroad man who can't tell
you instances by the dozen of engines that
positively would not make time with some
engineers; but would get there every time
under the hands of others. You might say
1t was the fault of the engineers if the en-
gines did not make their time, but I have
known the very best engineers that eva.
mounted the footboard who have been
obliged to be transferred from locomotives
placed in their charge because the locomo-
tlyes would not make their time, but
which, under the hand of other engineers
neither as skillful nor so experienced,
would never run behind.
A CASE OF MUTUAL ATTACHMENT.
ATake the case of Josh Martin and Cad
Lyman, two of the old-time Erie engineers,
and either of them without q superior in
their day. Josh was running alocomotive
that he was greatly attached to, and the
sequel proved that the attachment was
mutual. For some reason or other the
superintendent of the road wanted Josh's
locomotive for use on a portion of the road
that Lyman ran on, SO he ordered Lyman
and Martin to exchange engines. The old
fellows who remember it say that when
Josh1s engine was run away from Port
Jarvis, Josh cried like a baby, and that
b engine herself was all broke ND 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 had made up her
mind that she would not work under him,
and she didn't. She got stalled with the
hgbtest trains. and never made her run on
time. After a weeks trial Lyman reported
the locomotive No good and she was
condemned to run the gravel train. She
worked a. balky and sulky as ever, and
the superintendent ordered her taken to
Paterson and broken up.
"Josh Martin heard OF this, and came
down the road a-fyin'. He begged to have
his old gall back again, and finally the
superintendent said he might try her.
Josh mounted his footboard once more,
and when he pulled the throttle away she
went like q bird. She made the run back
to Port Jeryis quicker than any locomo.
ttvs 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 case of accident. No, sir: tie
fact of the matter was, Josh and that eli.
CINE just loved one another, and simply
would not be parted; and there are plenty
OF cases just like it to-day..-New York
Times.
A New Device for the Library.
It is said that Mr.. George Vanderbilt,
the literary member of the family, will not
spoil old and rare books by the approximation
OF new covers, and has invented a new de.
vice for maintaining the old covers and at
the same time for retaining the elegant
.Ontatda oppaorppoo ~ III, J;l,-o., r1