The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-10-03
6EA RUNAWAY ENGINE.
Congressman Cranes Perllous
Feat as an Engineer.
[Pittsburg Bulletin. ]

high good glee, spinning yarns to a
coterie Of members.
I'm my young days." said the con-
gresham, 81 was an engineer on the
Santa Fe railroad. Do you fellows know
what a trying thing it is to be a loco
motive engineer? Well, | can tell you
that it will do a mans nerves more harm
than anything else. Alcohol and to-
bacco are mere trifes in comparison,
even if they be used to excess. | didn't
stay long in the business. l like excite
ment, but running cannon ball ex-
press whose schedule time was sixty
miles an hour is little too much even
for me- But the three months time
that | ran No. &c was not sufficient for
mo to realize the injury it was doing my
nervous system. So that was not the
real reason that led to my abandonment
of the throttle forever.
81 had only been on, as | said, about
three months, when by some carelessness
or viciousness one of the engines, known
as mountain climber, got away with
full steam on and started down the road
on a message of death and destruction.
| had just finished a long run and was
preparing to SO home, when the train
dispatcher rushed wildly out of his office
and told the news. The track had been
cleared, he said, and there was nothing
to stop the mad rush of the locomotive
until it should dash into the station at
Galveston and plow its way through
bricks and mortar until both the build
ing and the locomotive were ruined
HIS GREAT NERVE.
81 had plenty of nerve then, and sup
pose by your laughing you think have
lost none of it, but am free to confess
that | would not dare to undertake the
task | successfully accomplished that
day. Perhaps it was the excitement
and enthusiasm of the moment which
led me to volunteer to lasso that locomo-
tive. always smile when recall the
look of incredulity that met my conf
dent assertion that could catch and ar
rest the mad fight of the runaway, but
was SO confident that they gave me Il
hearing, and | finally secured the SER
vices of a sturdy Irish lad as fireman.
In less than three minutes after the dis
patch had been received was on my en-
gine, with steam slowly coming up
again, and pulling out as rapidly as pos
sible to meet the oncoming terror.
1T was impossible for the train dis
patcher to give me any accurate idea as
to where the runaway was The best
he could do was to say that it had passed
a small station about IS miles up the
road some ten minutes before moving at
the rate of about 90 miles an hour. A
few minutes more and with steam up |
had my engine moving at the rate of so
miles an hour and going straight at the
runaway on the same track. ran this
way for abour twenty-five minutes
when, as near rs | could calculate, the
runaway had done 37t miles and | had
covered %. Ii my calculations were
correct there were still some 12t miles
between us, but you can imagine that
the last five miles l covered running di-
rect at the oncoming monster were any
thing but pleasant. Well, | reversed
my engine and started running away,
gradually increasing my speed until we
settled down to comfortable 80 miles
an hour, the Irish lad meanwhile keep
ing on Il terrific pressure Of steam.
or THE SAME TRACK.
1--WE might have run into almost any
thing, for | did not look ahead at all;
my eyes were strained until they panied
me looking up the track for the run
away. 1t might have been ten minutes,
more or less-it seemed like years to me.
Finally we heard the rumble and roar of
the monster. 1t didn't take her long to
heave in sight, and she was coming a.
humming For the first time, | confess,
! lost my nerve. 1t was only momentary,
however, and then | opened my throttle
and away we went. There was a good
mile Of straight track between us when
| first caught sight of her: then we
turned curve and she was out of sight
if not out of hearing. When she did
come she had gained on us pretty nearly
half mile.
81 shut off steam u trifle, and when
we struck level piece of track but a
quarter Of mile separated us. told
Irish to keep up pressure, and the way
he did it it's wonder the boiler of 76
didn't bust. She kept getting nearer
and nearer, and it was all could do to
keep from throwing wide the throttle
and speeding away from her. But
kept my nerves as steady as though they
were of iron. Nearer and nearer she
came, until could actually imagine she
was blowing her way through us. Final
ly she closed in upon us, and assure
you that so nearly equal had succeeded
in making the speed that the shock was
little, if any, greater than that felt upon
the coupling of two cars.
Il did not hesitate an instant. but
jammed down the steam valve tight,
sprang upon the tender of my engine-a
difficult task even for an athlete like /
then was-and from there swung myself
upon the engine. 1t was the work of
scarcely half minute to Chamber in the
cab and jab down the steam valve there
We ran possibly mile before we came
to standstill, and by that time was
as limp as rag and shaking like man
with the ague. We coupled the engines,
and in half an hour had them both safely
housed in Galveston.
That was my last experience as a To-
connective engineer, You could never get
me to steer a cab again" ~