Smyrna times., 1891-02-11
IN SOME TIGHT PLACES
"REMINISCENCES OF A LOCOMOTIVE
ENGINEER.

An Old Engineer Tells of Several Very
Narrow Escap s-RaiIrOadIng To-day |
ChiIds Play to What 1t Used to be-"Ne |
Orders"
A Justice of the Supreme Court is not !
more taciturn than the average railroad I
engineer. And, not unlike the eminent
jurists, when once his habitual reserve
is cast cast aside he is a veritable mine
of anecdOte and wit.
Star reporter one afternoon during
the past week ran across one Of these
knights of the Throttle in the neigh
borhood of the 'rOund house on Nlr-
ginia avenue, and, as luck would have it,
the Salvation car" as the pay car is
designated in the railroaders' parlancr,
had Just arrived, and he was in good hui
NOR and talkative.
Come, John, you won't go out on your
run for two hours yet. Tell me about
some of the tight places you've been III
since becoming an engineer"
well, young man, we don't like to
talk about those things, but as you ap-
pear to be anxious for story, l don't
mind telling you one"
Tell me about that long red scar there
under your chin. That must have been
quite a wound.
THAT was rather a hard one, but
when l received it it was a small affair
N comparison with my other breaks and
bruises. AS you know, I've pulled a
throttle on the Baltimore and Potomac
ever since the first rail WAS laid. Rail
roading to-day is child's play to what it
was then. Now our greatest risk is a
broken rail or axle then it was a dozen
1 different things to keep us alert, chief
/ among them being washOuts, insecure
/ trestles, and mistakes in telegraph or
4 ders incidental to a single-track road.
/ Overwork also played a prominent part,
and it was owing to the latter that this
scar adOrns my meat chopper.
. 1t was during the busy days of the
Inauguration Of Garfield, and all the
sleep the boys had secured for week
was only catnaps / was coming north,
ouOl Washington, on the eve OF in
auguratiOn day, and ex-President Hayes
occupied private car on the rear OF my
train. The cars were crowded to theil
fullest capacity, and, with this respon
sibility upon me, believe l could have
done without sleep for month. All the
cars were in Washington or bOunC
north. the engines coming south gener
ally being empty-that is, without cars
The engineers Of these empty engines
would mOmentarily relax their vigi
lance, owingto the lesser responsibility
and it was during one of these moment
that 1 got into the tightest place and re
ceived the closest call of my life. l re
ceived orders to pass two empty engine
coming south at Severn, a small tele
graph station about thirty miles mort
of Washington, and that they wOul
take the siding for me. My engine wa
doing nicely and we were licking
along at pretty lively gait, when, jus
as l turned the Severn curve, flip bang
came the two engines into me, and whe
l woke up two weeks had passed, an Ell
gineer and baggage master had bee
! buried, three locomotives and half
. dozen cars smashed into splinters, and
lay on my back in the hospital with
leg, an arm, and three ribs broken, al
my under jaw almost torn off. The e.
. gineer OF one of the south bound el
! gines had relaxed his vigilance for har
: ly more than minute, ran by his 81
: ing, and his life paid the forfeit.
= why didn't you jump? Holy smOk
! youngfellOw, that never entered my min
= l reversed my engine, put on the air, al
:, by that time we were piled up and W
. unconscious. The good lord only know
y. why my railroaGing days didn't el
. there, but they didn't, and 1 fiatter IN
: self l can make time with anyone
n the boys"
= How about that little accident out
,. McGruder's s curve weren't you mixed
in that aft tir? Rt occurred a good VIII
- ago, but never heard the Particular
~ well, l should say 1 was mixed up
= that affair. In all my years of railrOt
= ing that was the luckiest accident wi
- the queerest trimmings l have eN
l., 4. ArS1 -
- tell you IN connection with the aft
~ came to me some time after their Occl
= renee.
Is This time was coming south on
p New York express, and was due
" Washington at IL 80 at night. 1 b
'u about twelve cars we'll filled with pi
10 sengers behind me. At that time the
~ was a telegraph station about a quar-
'u of a mile north of the curve call
Wilson's The express generally
W a clear track, and orders were me-
u. given it only when of great importan
VI Owing to this fact it made very +
7u time, and at that point usually ran fol
or forty-ive miles an hour. AS swJ
in sight Of this little lonely watch bo
saw that the red signal was down, g
after a fierce pull at the whistle
versed the lever and put on the air.
came to q stop in hurry, and think
orders were awaiting me, made brt
on for the office to secure them with
at losing any more time than necessary
on Pushing open the door 1 saw the
a orator lying back in his chair, a.
ka thought fast asleep. There was STR
re odor Of coal gas in the room, but in
as heat of passion at what I thought wa
ed ease Of neglect OF duty, paid no att
So, ton to this, but grabbing him by
nd collar of his coat, 1 yanked him out
Ter the chair on to the floor AS he wS
lth little slow coming around, / caught U
)ut bucket of water and threw the conte
ice over him, bringing him to his senses
ers stanter.
or, q Where's my orders? What's the
rO- down for2' 1 shouted into his ears.
OBJ There's no orders. must b
zone to sleep or tainted. Everythil
NIB all right, he replied in dazed sol
way.
md with an Oath-I used to swear The
Ose Irushed back to my engine, whistleC
be a lagman, and pulled out, vOwing :
the peance on that operator in the shape
led a report to the superintendent upon
arrival at Washington. That rel
i'm never went in.
Il had COTTON my train under way
was going only about five miles an
asst when, just as we swung around
Gruder's curve, the track sank under
and with a loud crash and a splinte
of buffers we came to dead stop, '
he the front part OF my engine sunk al
to three feet below the track in the
I and gravel. There is dangerous qU
Lwn sand there, and it had washed a
Ort. fifteen feet Of the earth away from u
for the track. Owing to our rate of spo'
r in good shaking up was about all We
one but suppose for one minute that tha
iere signal had not been down on us at
/ to sons. They'd have picked us all u
ID it pieces, as would have gone into
Der, hole at the rate Of about forty mile
OF hour"
1t I
om- What is more chilling to the ar
lover than the beautifurs no9
ian.
the
,vs. Driven to suicide by Love of his Dead