The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-07-13
THE PHANTOM TRAIN.
Denver News.


 Mountain engineers perhaps the most fear less class of men in the world. Journeys of so perilous & nature that the blood of an ordinary man would curdle at the bare thought of undertaken successfully made by them, and under circumstances of so trying a character that, on reflection, the aver age man would marvel at. Those men who ride hundreds of miles through the mountains are sell dom frightened, but to day there resides in Denver a man who would not pull train over Marshall pass for & cool million, and when the name of that famous place is mentioned he invountarily clenches his hands and pales visibly.
 Several years ago there story circulated that three times a week phantom train went steamipg the pass and that ghostly forms could be seen through the windows, and, although the state- ments in regard to it were incoherent engineers began to regard certain portion o the track with suspicion and usually hugged the rails there as close as possible One morning freight "runner" pulled into Green river and informed the operator that he had the train, and earnestly did he plead with the master mechanic, that he was given engine on the Salt Lake division. Other ex- perences were related, and it became almost week. ly occurrence that some engineer would report have ing train of which the dispatcher had no re- cord and could not account for. In nearly every instance the engineers who complained were those who pulltd the night passenger, which reached Green River at o'clock in the morning.
 One engineer who had twice seen the much taked-o of train pulled out of Ssda white as the snow the ground and the following morning the fireman brought the engine into Green River the brakeman firing and the engineer in an insen- ible condition. He had seen the phantom train and that was his last trip on the road.
 The regular train was then placed in hands of an old and tried engineer, by the name of Nelson Edwards, who had as a fireman Charles W Whitehead Both men were cool and calculating, we'll educated and generally considered the most fearless men in theemploy of the Rio Grande-men who had caught runaway trains on the mountain side without SO much as & flush sufiusing their cheeks. For nearly two months they were on the train back and forth every other day, and while the alternating crews had changed several times, they had not yet seen the mysterious train, the sight of which had been the cause of SO many engineers quitting that division.
 One evening, just at dark, while the fireman was lighting the lamp, the engineer, Edwards exper- fenced a strange feeling creeping over him, and as he pulled into the canon the silence seemed deeper than usual the night darker and the air cooler Several times before they reached the grade the popping" of the safety valve caused him to start But soon they were winding in and about the labyrinth of small canons and over deep arroyas and as his trained eye swept the glittering rails ahead he forgot his uneasiness. Engineers seldom speak to their fremen-as 6 rule they too busy; the constant watching requires that their minds should be on their work, and tonight Edwards was more like sphinx than usual, for it was re- ported that there was 6 bridge in danger of going down, and defective rail in one of the canons and and he slackened the speed of his train as a matter of safety.
 The engineer passed under the snowshed and the strange roar SO peculiar such occasions followed While in the shed far away there came the long warning whistles of an approaching train. Edwards remarked to his fireman that No. 8 was