The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1891-01-23
LASSOING AN ENGINE.
A ConGr ssman Recalls a Thrilling
Time in His Career.
How He Prevented n Runaway Loco
motive from Destroying Many Lives
AMI Much Valuable Property
in Texas Town.

high good humor, recently, says the
Pittsburgh Press, spinning yarns TO a
coterie of brother members.
'In my young days" said the Congress
man, Il was an engineer on the Santa
Fe railroad. had only been on about
three months when by some carelessness
or viciousness one of the engines known
as Observation-Disclosures got away with
full steam on and started down the
road on message of death and de-
struction. / had just finished long
run and was preparing TO go home, when
the train-dispatcher rushed wildly out
of the 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 II
should dash into the station at Calves
ton and plow its way through bricks and
mortar until both the building and loco
motive were ruined.
81 had plenty OF nerve then, and
suppose by your laughing you think
have lost none of il, but ! am free TO
confess that / would not now dare to
undertake the task that | successfully
accomplished that day Perhaps it was
the excitement and enthusiasm OF the
moment which led me to volunteer to
lasso that locomotive. i always smile
when / recall the look OF incredulIty
that met my confident assertion that
could catch and arrest the mad flight OF
the runaway, butI was confident that
they gave me hearing, and I finally
secured the services of sturdy Irish lad
as fireman.
I'm less than three minutes after the
dispatch had boen received ! was on my
engine, with steam slowly coming up
again, and pulling out as rapidly as pos
sible to meet the on-coming terror. 1t
was impossible for the train-dispatchcr
to give me any accurate idea as TO whcpc
the runaway was The best he could
do was to say that it had passed 4 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 L had my engine moving at
the rate of sixty miles an hour, and 60
ing straight at the runaway on the same
track.
Il ran this way for about twenty-five
minutes, when. as near as ! could calcu-
late, the runaway had done thi-ty-scycn
and 4 half miles and / had covered
twenty-five. II my calculations were cor
rect there were still some twelve and
agine that the last five miles l covered
running direct at the oncoming monster
were any thing but pleasant Well,
reversed my engine and started running
away, gradually increasing my speed un-
til we settled down to q comfortable
thirty miles an hour, the Irish lad mean
while keeping on a terrific amount of
steam. 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
runaway. 1t might . have been ten
minutes, more or lesS-it seemed liko
years to me.
Finally we heard the rumble and
roar of the monster. 1t didn't take her
long to heave in sigh:, and She was com
ing a humming. For the first timc !
confess lost my nerve. L was only
momcntary. however, and then | opened
nv throttle and away we went. There
was good mile of straight track be-
tween us when i first caught sight of
her; then we turned 4 curve and she was
out of sight, if not out of hearing.
When she did come she had gaind on us
pretty nearly half mile. | shut of
stear a trille, and when We struck a
level piece of track but 4 quarter of 4
mile separated us told Irish TO Keep
up pressure, and the way he did it it's a
wonder the boiler of seventy-six didn't
burst. She kept getting nearer and
nearer. and it was all | could do 70 keep
from throwing wide the throttle and
speeding away
Finally she closed in upon Us, and /
assure YOU that 50 nearly equal had I
succeeded in making the speed that the
shock was little If any greater than
that felt upon the coupling of two
cars did not hesitate an
instant, but jammed down the
steam valve tight-a difficult task
even for an athlete, as ] then was.
and from there swung myself upon the
runaway. 1t was the work of scarcely
half n minute to Chamber in the cab and
jab down the steam valve there. We
ran possibly mile before we came TO a
standstill, and by that time / was as
limp as u rag and shaking like 4 man
with the ague. a good drink of whisky
fetched ne around in 4 few minutes.
We coupled the engines, and in half an
hour had them both safely housed in
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