Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-04-27
80 IocoNoTIVE HEApIIeHT.
A Moonlight Night is Hardest On the Nerves
Of Engineerg.

A Moonlight Night is Hardest On the Nerves
Of Engineers.
Talk with an engineer In the Memphis
Appeal: "A headlight amt of so much
use as people think It is. Why, on a
moonlight night would just as soon
not have one at all"
@Why?7
Well, it's a curious thing, and don't
know the philosophy of It, but the
moonlight being the greater light des-
troys the effect of the headlight almost
entirely, and if it wasn't for its being
reflected from some station platform or
car on a side track you wouldn't know
it was lighted at all Why, many a
time I have gone out on the running
board there on the side of the engine
around to the front to see If my head
light was still burning"
"I suppose then that running on
moonlight night is easier on YOU than
dark nights. because you have a better
light and can see further?" said the
reporter innOcently.
W GLls III AL41k544B Ut II 4 W as AA-A-4--As 3
on a prairie, but in this part of the
country we are all the time running
through woods or strips of woods where
the shadows Of trees are thrown across
the track, and those shadows are so
strong and black that they can't be dis
sipated by the brightest kind of head
light. You can't tell the difference be-
tween a shadow and an object to save
your life hardly; you have either struck
it or passed it before you could tell
which it was"
well, that's a new one on me, said
the reporter. 4 always felt much safer
when L was travelling on moonlight
night. "
ANY engineer viii tell you that that
is true, was the reply.
What's that" asked another engi-
neer, who had just brought in a heavy
freight train and was on his way home.
Engineer No. 1 explained.
"That's so, assented the newcomer.
" A moonlight night is the hardest of
all nights on an engineers nerves, and
the most dangerous to run on. L
would rather run on any other kind of
a night. A man can be deceived so
easily. I don't suppose there is an en-
gineer yet that has not been scared by
light, when it was either rising or set
ting and low on the horizon, about the
height an engineers headlight would
be, and that's thing that happens to
the oldest engineers, to. They come
around a curve suddenly, and there is
another engine close onto them-at
least, that's what they think-and it
startles them, because they amt look
ing out for it. When a horse is on the
track in front of you and running away
from you, he looks exactly like a man
you can't tell that he isn't until he
turns his side to you.
"Speaking of being deceived" con-
tinued engineer No. 2, Il had about as
singular an experience once while /
was crawling around Lookout Noun
tain on one of the divisions of the
Nashville, Chattanooga and st. Louis,
pulling a passenger train into
Chattanooga, as any one ever had
in that line, but that wasn't a moonlight,
but a dark, clear night like this. It's
pretty Gravity place there; the road at
one place is cut out of the solid rock
of the mountains side for some dis
lance, and they kept-since they had
that bad accident there-a Waterman
to see that no rocks or trees fell down
from above. w e lau always TO SLOW up
at that point, and I had put on air
brakes and was sliding along easily,
when all of a sudden I saw lamp
swung rapidly across the track ahead
tagging me down, you understand.
There was a ravine back of US, which
we had just passed, and at the point
we then were it was tumble of several
hundred feet only before we would fall
into the river, if we did fall. 1t didn't
take me long to stop, You can bet.
Then the fagman ran closer up still,
tagging me down until he got within
few feet Of the engine, when he jumped
to one side and disappeared down the
side of the mountain"
"What did he do that for?" asked
the reporter, half expecting sell"
of some sort.
well, it wasn't hagman at all; it
wasn't anything but a large fox, and
it was the reflection of my headlight in
the animals eyes You know how a
cats eyes shine when you bring a
candle up to 'em in the dark, and as
this fox came up to the engine he
lodged from side to side like an animal
VIII do, and It looked to me Just like
lamp swung across the track, and then,
too. I kinder expected to be tagged
there at any time, you know"
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