Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1889-02-21
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A MILE A MINUTE.
Stubborn Cow Obstructs q
LIGHTNING Train In Nebraska.

| lightning Train IN NEBRASKA.
A small party of railway conductors
and engineers sat discussing the speed
OF the trains OF the present day at the
Garfield Hotel, two evenings ago, says
the Omaha World. 1t was almost un.
animously conceded that trains can
not make the time on western roads
that they do on eastern roads, when
Fred Ranslaw, who has been on
Union Pacific engine for the last ten
years, related an experience he
once had in making Grand Island and
return.
at was on a bright October day." be-
gan the narrator, lin 1881 that I re-
ceived an order from General Master
Mechanic Mcconnell to report at once
at his Office. / had then been an en-
gineer only three months and / knew
by the way the command read that
something out Of the ordinary had to
be done. had never run an engine
out Of the yards, and l went to the
office with misgiving that my mettle
was about to be tried. was the only
engineer available, and | knew there
was nothing for me to do but to obey.
When got to the Office / was given
the order: make Grand Island and re-
turn as fast as you consider it safe"
This order had no double meaning to
me. My engine was No. IS, rickety
old thing used in the yards, but she
was the only one at hand. To her I
attached car, raised the white flag,
and, with the crew and Dr. Mercer,
pulled out of the Union Pacific depot
81 learned before | started that
switchman named Smith, employed in
the yards at Grand Island, had been
seriously hurt, and that the object of our
trip was to bring him to Omaha. The
poor fellow had been caught between
the cars, and both legs and an arm had
been run over. 1t was thought that
good care and medical attendance
might save him, and for these reasons
it was deemed best to place him in the
hospital.
sour trip for the first one hundred
miles was uneventful. We stopped at
Papio to meet a stock train at Valley
for orders and at Fremont to meet No.
4. AS we were nearing Schuyler No.
IL was doing her best. The telegraph
poles seemed about u foot apart, and
the fences were shadows dancing in the
sunlight. We must have been going
sixty miles an hour when the fireman
looked up, and with cry of despair ex-
claimed, There goes o cowr and
jumped into the gangway. The brute
had just come on the track, and slowed
up little hoping she would cross over
and the coast would be clear.
Instead, however, of leaving the
road, she hoisted her tail and
started down the track in a mad race
with the train. We were now getting
close upon her, and the situation was
becoming perilous. 1t was evident
that the cow must be run down, and
for fear that see might double up" and
ditch the train | opened the throttle
and the engine bounded ahead. In an
instant l was upon her There was
shower of blood and filth upon the front
OF the engine, and the cow lay about
two rods from the track a mass of life
less pulp. / looked back, and the old
lady who owned the COW stood in the
doorway OF the section-hOuse in holy
horror. When we got to Chapman the
waste and the oil in the boxes was on
fire, but did not stop until | had
reached my destination, within three
hours after | left this city.
cat Grand Island the injured man
was placed in the car, and after wait
OF one-half hour we started for Omaha
The distance to Central City, twenty
two miles, we made in twenty minutes.
Here we had to stop and change the
wounded mans position. The surgeon
ordered us to run slower to Omaha on
account of his painful condition, and we
pulled into the Union Pacific depot just
six hours and tifty-eight minutes after
,, We had started out, a distance of 30S
miles in that time, including nine stops
and wait of one-half hour. The
wounded man was kindly cared for in
the hospital, but the shock and the ride
were too much for his system, and in a
couple of days alterward he died"