Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-03-11
ENGINES IN THE SULKS.
Examples of Peculiar Superstition on he
Part ofLocomotive Engineers.
MN York ptsss.

-NtW iVh Eifecs
Locomotives are funny things" said
an Erie railway engineer, "andI have seen
them when l believed they were actually
human. They get the sulks sud have
balky streaks, aud when they are in such
moods you can't make time with thcmany
more than you can fly. Then again, they'll
be as clipper and willing as a thoroughbred
horse, and You actually have TO hold 'em
in to keep from running into stations
ahead of time.
Take the case of Josh Martin and Cad
Lyman, two of the old-time Erie engineers,
tue former being still alive, I believe, and
the latter having died only a few years
ago. Neither of them had q superior in
skill IS engineers in their day. Josh was
running a locomotive that he was greatly
attached to, and the sequel proved that
the attachment WIS mutual.
For some reason or other the superin-
tendent of the road wanted Johns lOcomC-
tive for use on Il portion of the road that
Lyman was running on, and he ordered
Lyman and Martin to exchange engines.
The old fellows who remember il say that
when Josh's engine was run away from
Port Jeryis Josh cried like a baby, and that
the engine herself was all broke up at the
parting, for she was IN 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
wouldn't work under him and she didn't.
She peIsistently got stalled with the light
est of trains, and could not be made to
make her time under any circumstances.
After a weeks trial Lyman reported the
engine no good, and che was condemned
and put on the gravel train between Pier
mont and Sutlern. She worked rs balky
aud Sulky as ever, and the superintendent
ordered her to be broken up and thrown
on the scrap heap.
II suppose one ofthe stubborEes locomo-
tive that vas ever put on q road was one
Of tue Twin Sisters, a couple of splendid
machines built by the New York Central a
few years ago. They were made exactly
alike IN every particular, from the same
patterns, by the same woTkmen and of the
same materials. There wasn't q 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 then developed
amazing powers Of speed and strength.
Size could takes freight train mp a grade
with scarcely an effort, and with n passcn-
ger train Cou i strike a 90 mile an hour
glit with ease. The other one wOuldn'tg go
at all Even when pulled wide open she
would simply give a few spittful puff5 Of
black smoke, a few turns of her driving
wheels, and then would stop. Tbs way
that she exhausted steam showed that she
vas vixen.
They put her in the round house and
kept her there for six months, thinking
that she might get over her sulKs and ran
all right on another trial. one day they
fired her up and tried her. She started C6
like a beauty and ran two miles in \ little
over two minutes Then the old spell
caue over her again, aud she took The
Sulks worse than ever