Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1889-11-22
AN OPERATORS STORIES.
"REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD RAIL
ROAD TELEGRAPHeR.


Thought Signal Was Shown As Joke.
The telooranh onerator s,opped after
tal,ipo a nress dispatcb dascribing a rail
road accident and chatted with the re-
porter. The news that had been coming
in over,the wire hroupht nm re,niniecences
Of the davs when he had bsen in charye
of li4tle station ON railroad
"a railway telegrarher." he said. lis
brou -ht into close Relationship with other
eiuDl5vas of tbe road but hss,yapn lba
engirears and himself there EXISTS a
friend hin that dotes b1cl, nom III, G1st
time the engineer has ..l .no order at
his Office or bv u, ~ i'm bis hand.
as he flew bv th, o.iae. ASKED for time
when he had exceeded Oh, mayfmun
speed.
Several years connection with a rail
road end in the couDaniopsA;n of these
men has convinced me that a more brave
nervy, reclIees daredevil and kind heart
ell set Of men do not exist Block sig
nails aud travelfnr train masters haye
eliminated the reckless mart of their na-
ture to q great extent, but the nerve
bravery and kind heartedness still re-
main and will until the end Of time, as
only men of this caHber make railroad
engineers and stick to the business.
: 'Some ten years ago. when a boy of
l9, ] was located as night operator at
New Freedom, on the Northern Central
railway. about fifty miles north of Balti-
moro. The signal tower was situated at
= point called Summit, where the road
was down grade about nine miles south.
almost to Parlton, the next telegraph
stat n, and about eight miles north to
Glen Rock, the next telegrs ,h station in
tha, direction. At that time empty en-
gines, known as 'pushers. were sent out
from York, twenty miles north. to push
heavy freight trains over the summit.
follow on to Parkton and push train
north. Ii was the greatest DELIGHT Of the
engineers of these 'pushers' and the
| through freights, too. to Law TO at NV
office, get me to give them five or seven
minutes-that is. saw they had left that
length of time before. and then faIp
down the hill to Glen Rock or Par!,ton.
as the case may be. Times innuuor.
able did they make the 'faP at the rate
! of a mile a minute. but the given time
saved them from censure.
! lone night Barney Riley better man
never pulled throttlo-{I think be is
passenger engineer now came soU.L ON
a through freight. He had for a front
brakeman man from the coun.ry dis.
tricts surrounding Narysville. the north
ern end of the division, who was making
his first trip and knew little about the
trials of railroadinc. As the engine
swept by Barney held up his omen hand
asking for five minutes, which I duly
credited him with. How fast he went
down the hill that night win never be
known to a certainty. but it must have
been like the wind. as I learned after
ward that he induced the operator at
Parkton to give him additional tir.,. and
that the poor brakeman left his train mt
| that station and returned home ON H.e
next passenger train, vowing that l.. had
all the railroad experience he desir. Land
solemalv declared that it took all his
energies to hold on to the car he WAS ON.
and that had the train loct the tva.l il
would have kept going for Il mile q, least
across the countrv
The engiuryrs and c.,r"ato,s n'.r.
the line at that t,..e. 81. Isa g.. ...,,
vyrl,, ,ontinu. T., t,J,vir iyl.ps a. ,..a
other, and th, ida TIA. / W.. ..siuo
co,ae very near crs,;as az ea... h.,
hrr. 1t occurred in iii. way: Mo-, sig.
nails were not in voruc d.; that en-. ana
our orders ONLY called 10, the hsl..ng Of
freight trains five milu:as apaf. Our
signals consisted of red. white aal blge
Red to stop. blue to run slow or c.;t.gY.
y..l white ,eag,a,i . ,.lp.r track The
49,. i a..t p l!... ..... T. g.: ..',
49, r..,..i., ..,,.,,,,,,l c:....,,., e., ,.i
. -. .!tl .,,,..t ,ch,Gul. .,.ras! a.
f.. , was. ;l ezra frqi..ht H.. ezra
r-, .,Ss.ul ,,q station. lNi a...., - ....,r 4
..,.. 4 u.I:... ...... lad st..... i;...r
....,!;.l rs.,.,... l..u si,,iua. H., .rt..-
argcr.! iIiu.ts aad bru.i ,...,!.u.l
l.:a.r!!at.l after they Lad r...a.ri tS.
tuNrl low,rcI ,..o rcd srg,!ai e., usa.i
uaU .esi ii down the required .;,e min.
u.rs. | ha,l observed the light, on the
p",ras caboo,r away down tie trach