St. Landry democrat., 1890-11-29
A Runaway Locomotive,
AN EXCITING INCIDENT IN CONGRESSMAN
CRANES CAREER AS AN ENG INEER.


CRANES CAREER AS AN ENGINEER.
Congressman Crane, of Texas, who ran
about the capitol the other day in seer
sucker coat and profuse perspiration,
swearing in we'll chosen Texan that he
| would kill an obnoxious correspondent,
was to-day in high good humor, spinning
| yarns to >terie of brothe members.
"ln 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 loco
M tive engineer3 Well, | can tell you
that it will do a mans nerves more harm
! than anything else in the world. Alcohol
and tobacco are mere TITLES in comparison
even if they be used to excess. | didn't
stay very long in the business. | like ex-
ctement, but running cannon-ball
| express whose scheduled time was sixty
mics an hour is little too much even for
me- But the three months time that ran
| No 76 was not sutfi ;ient for me to realize
the ujlry it was doing my nervous sys
tenn. So that was not The real reason that
| led to my abandonment of the throttle
| forever
| had only been on, as | said, about
three months, when by SOME carelessnes9
| OF v!ciousness. one Of the engines, known
as u mountain climber, got away with full
steam on aud started down the road on a
message of death and destruction. had
just finished a long run and was prepar-
Ing to go home, when the train dispatcher
rushed wildly ont of his office and told me
the news The track had been cleared, he
said, and there was nothing to stop the
mad rush of the runaway locomotive until
it should dash into the station ut Calves
and p ough It's way through bricks and
mortar Until both the building and the
| locomotive were ruined. had plenty Of
nerve Their, and suppose, by your laugh
! ing you think | haye lost none OF II, bu;
| am free to confess that would not now
dare to take the task | successfully SC
complished that day. Perhaps it was the
excltems mt and enthusiasm OF the moment
| which led me to volunteer to lasso that
! locomotive. | always smile when | recall
the incredulity that met my confident as
serion that | could catch and arrest the
mad flight of the runaway, but | was so
confident that they gave me a hearing,
and [ finally secured the services of
sturdy Irish lad as fireman. In less than
three minutes after the dispatch had been
received | was on my engine, with steam
slowly coming up again, and pulling out
coming terror. 1t was impossible for
the train dispatcher to give me any &C
curate idea as to where the runaway was
The best he could do was TO say that it
had passed small station about seventy
five miles up the road some ten minutes
before, moving at the rate of about ninety
| miles an hour. A few minutes more, and
with steam up had my engine moving a.
the rate of sixty miles an hour, and going
straight at the runaway on the same track.
ran this way for about twenty five min
| utes, when, as near as | could calculate.
the runaway had done thirtv-seven and a
half miles and | had covered twelty FIVE.
If my calculations were correct, there were
twelve and a half miles between US, but
YOU can magine that the last five miles l
covered running direct at the oncoming
monster, were anything but pleasant.
Well, l reversed my engine, and started
running away, graduslly increasing my
speed until we settled down to comfort
able thirty miles an hour, the Irish lad
meanwhile keeping on terrific head OF
steam. We might have run into almost
any thing, for did not look ahead at all,
NY eyes were strained until they panied
me, looking up the track for the runaway.
1t might have been ten minutes, more or
less,-i seemed ten years to me. Finally
we heard the rumble and the roar of the
hell bent 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 l 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
a curve and she was out of sight If not
out of hearing. When she did come, she
had gained on US nearly half mile.
shut off steam trihe, and when we struck
level piece of track. but q quarter of 6
mile separated US. told Irish t. keep uI
pressure, and the way he did it it's a won
. der the boiler of rs did rot bust. She
kept getting nearer and nearer, and it was
all could do to keep from throwing wids
, open the throttle and speeding away from
her. But | kept my nerves as steady a:
though they were of iron. Nearer anc
nearer she came, until could imagine SHE
was ploughing her way through US
finally she closed in on US, and | assure
you that so nearly equal had succeeded
in making the speed that the shock wa
little if any, greater than that felt upol
, the coupling of two cars. | did not hes
, itste an instant, but damned down th
) safety valve tight, spraDg upon the tende
of my engines difficult ia * even for al
5 athlete like then was-and from ther
! swung myself upon the runaway. 1t wa
the work of scarcely half minute t.
Chamber into the cab and jab down tn
steam valve there. We ran possibly
I mile before we came to a standstiIl. ant
by that time was as limp as rag am
3 shaking like man with the ague. /
good drink of whisky brought me- aroun'
in few minutes. We coupled tn
engines, and in half an hour had then
both safely housed in Galveston.
THAT was my last experience as
l locomotive engineer. You could neve
; get me to.steer cab again"