The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-18
ENGINES HAVE FEELINGS,
They Are Just Like Human Beings
in That Respect, a Driver
Says.
A Locomotive Will Get Out OF
Sorts EXACTLY Like a
Man.
The Story OF How Old II Didn Like
Her Run and Made Thai Fact
Known.

Locomotives become deranged and
maniacal, like human beings. They re-
uuire regular rest, constant attention. even
nursing when they don't feel right. An
engine will take spells, when nothing you
can do will make it act properly. Then
tho shop is tho only place for it, and there
my machine has got to 90, or I quit the SER
vice of the road" said a old engineer to q
representative of the New York World tho
other day down at the Grand Central.
Generally this is from overwork. En-
gines are like a thoroughbred horse in that
particular respect. They will get off their
feed'-by which | mean that they will not
pump up right. the furnace will clog and
the efficiency OF the fuel will not be OBJ
tanned. They suffer from a lack of energy.
You are liable to stall on an up grade.
They will act badly on the curves, mani
Testing a decided inclination to mount the
rails or to take sudden starts that endan-
ger the couplings. Old No. 6 that I used
to make the best time with when she was
right had m annoying habit Of starting
with an awful jerk. 1t didn't matter how
carefully l opened the throttle, how thor
oughly / understood the condition of the
steam, nway We jumped every time. 1t
seemed as if the steam gathered itself some-
where and, after it got ready, let itself &c.
That old monster has been broken up and /
am glad Of it. But, recurring to the tom
PER of locomotives, they are affected by the
weather, which is readily understood, but a
dull. heavy sky or a dense atmosphere has
a like effect"
when once a locomotive has lost force
of character or self-respect, does she ever
regain it," was asked.
Generally not; but / know a recent case
in which an engine recovered from a stroke
of this pa alysis and became what size is to-
day, the best on the ro,d When engine
No. II. on the Louisville. New Albany d
Chicago road came out of tho shop. brand
new, u little more than q wear ago, she was
successfully put in the hands of a half
dozen of the best engineers on the road to
make the run from Lafayette to New Al
bany. After a fair trial evsry man, with
out exception, pronounced No. q an utterly
worthless piece of machinery. The general
superintendent heard of the engine and
ordered her condemned, but tho master
mechanic blutted out to him.:
"'She doesn't like the run. 1t is a id
mean run and she knows it as we'll as you
do
"You sec the master mechanic wanted
the locomotive to have another chance.
Well, she got it, and tell You it was to
have been her last one. She'd have been
sold for %scrapiron or run off the track into
a forest and converted into the motive
power for a sawmill. No.. Il was sent up to
indianapolis and put on the run to Monon.
] went to the roundhouse and looked her
over, for I'd heard of her and am very curl
GUS. 1 was asked what 1 thought was the
matter. l spent an hour over her and
everything appeared to be right. took en-
off day and ran down fifty miles on her.
She made great time. To-day she is the
fastest sn the road and the most reliable.
She can pull n vestibule train of five cars
a mile a minute. Now she's the pet, the
banner engine of the road. A month ago
she was in a fair way to be turned out to
die, but now nothing is too rich for ler
blood. She has the bsst engineer and fire.
maj and the best attention in the shop.
Ask your Indianapolis correspondent to go
and see her. She's worth looking at, ID
"a locomotive that pulls out of its berth
in the roundhouse (where it has been in a
state of quiet and rest), backs up to a big
train, and at the sound of the conductors
bell rushes off on a h~undred-mile run at
fifty or sixty miles an hour is under a heavy
nervous strain. DON'T smile. I mean ex-
actly what | say. Every atom in the mole
cular structure of the steel and iron com
posing it is atthe highest tension. The en-
RlNS, lLClully II "a w VI diC IL Aal4
in making the run once or twice on sche-
dule time arouses suspicion. The moment
an engine is ranked as untrustworthy her
decadence has begun. Unless she has a
friend at court. as No. II had. her doom is
fixed. She is put at the most mental sell
vice, such as drawing construction and
gravel trains. Sometimes she il put on a
local run, stopping at every oross-road.
She ia treated Just as if she were known to
be lazy and rs if stopping were her strong
point. II l had ever thought I'd live to a
time when l was degraded to be engineer Of
q construction train or n whipper-snapper
local I'd be dead of a broken heart ten
days from now"
"What other curious facts have you OBJ
served about enginesY"
II am almost afraid to tell you this; but
in my forty years experience l have de-
tected, on several occasions, evidences of
something like nervous prostration in n.lo-
connective after a prolonged responsibility
had been put upon it-such az hauling the
paymaster, or the president of the United
States, or a bridal party, in which the bride
was the daughter Of the owner of the road.
Why, the story is still told in Chicago
about the famous George Coates. one of the
most fearless mon that ever sat in a cab.
Old Commodore Vanderbilt liked to travel
fast, and when he went out on a special
train the track was kept clear. and the ensi-
neer knew that the quicker he got over the
ground the better his chief would be
pleased. Coates was brought east to take
the train from Cleveland to Chicago. He
knew every inch of the rond. and got
through to Toledo in great shape. Another
engine had been ordered to be ready,
but by some misunderstanding the
right one was not fired up. The one he was
offered was a machine that Gates was
afraid OF, or it may have been thata freight
engine was offered through the blunder of
the roundhouse men. Whatever the reason
was Gates refused to take the new engine
through to Chicago. lie knew the risk and
took the precution to get the division SUI
perintendent to order the best locomotive
in the shops fired and to follow the special
train as n relief. The trouble came mt a
little village about forty miles from Toledo.
Suddenly the engine quit working. The
train came to n stop. George sprang out OF
the cab, looked the engine over and
through. He couldn't get her to start. He
told me- sha trcmhlad Ike q horse that has