The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1891-01-17
m SOME TIGHT PLACES
seMlNlsosNotso or A LOCOMOTIVE
EN0lNeER.

ENGINEER.
An Old Engineer Tell, Of Several Vory
Marrow Esoap s--Itaiirondina To-day,
Childs Play 60 what II Used TO bs.-''NO
Ordors'
A Justice OF the Supreme Court is not
moro taoiturn than the average railroad
engineer. And, not unlike the eminent
lurlsts, when once his habitual reserve
Is cast cast aside he Is a veritable mine
Of anecdots and wit.
A 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 Vir-
ginia avenue, and as luck would have 1t,
the Salvation car" rs the pay car is
designated In the railroaders' parlanoe,
had Just arrived, aud he was In good hui
NOR and talkatlve.
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 In
since becoming an engineer"
"Weil, young man, We don't like to
talk about those thlnss, but Rs you ap-
pear to be anxious for story, l don't
mind telling you one"
Tell me about that long red soar there
under your chin. That must have been
quite a wound"
That was rather a hard one, but
when Ireceived It IL was a small affair
In comparison with my other breaks and
bruises. As you know, I've pulIe
throttle on the Baltimore and Potomac
ever since the first rail was Laid. Rail
roading to-day is child's play 10 what II
was then. Now our greatest risk is a
broken rail or axle then 1t was dCzHn
4 a -,r4k -, rNo MI
among them being wRshouts, insecure
trestles, and mistakes in telegraph or
ders incidental to sinRle-track road.
0verwork also played a prominent part,
and It was owing to the latter that this
AGAR adorns my meat chopper.
" Il was during the busy days Of the
Inauguration Of Garfield, ant all the
sleep the boys had secured for q week
was only catnsps. was coming north.
out Of Washington, on the eve of in
auguration day, and eX-Presldent Hayes
occupied private ear on the rear of my
train. The cars were crowded to their
fullest capacity. and, with this respon-
sibility upon me. believe l could have
done without sleep for a month. All the
cara were In Washington or bound
north, the engines coming south rener-
ally being empty-that Is, without cars.
The engineers of these empty engines
would mOmentarily relax their vigil
lance, owing to the lesser responsibility,
and It WAS during one OF these moments
that got into the t'ghtest place and re-
lceived the closest call OF my life. l re-
ceived orders to pass two empty engines
coming south at Severn, a small tele-
graph station about thirty miles north
Of Washington. and that they would
take the siding for me. My engine was
doing nicely and we were licking IL
along at a pretty lively gait, when, Just
as turned the Severn curve, flip bang
came the two engines into me, and when
l woke up two weeks had passed, an en-
gineer and baggage master had been
buried, three locomotives and half a
dozen cars smashed into splinters, and
lay on my back In the hospital with a
leg, an arm, and three ribs broken, and
my under Jaw almost torn off. The en-
gineer OF one of the south bound en-
gines had relaxed his vigilance for hard
ly more than a minute, ran by his sid
Ing, and his life paid the forfeit.
why didn't you iump2 Holy smoke,
young:fellow,t that never entered my mind
reversed my engine, put on the all, and
by that time we were piled up and was
unconscious. The good lord only knows
why my railroading days didn't end
GN
self can make time with anyone o
the boys"
How about that little accident out at
: McGruder's curve weren't you mixed VI
in that afr lir2 1t occurred good while
ago, but / never heard the particulars.
well, should say WAS mixed up in
shat affair. In all my years of railroad
ing that was the luckiest accident with
The queerest trimmings have evei
known The little details am going t.
! tell you in connection with the aifail
came to me some time after their occur.
, renee.
This time was coming south on the
New York express, and was due il
Washington at II 80 at night. l haC
about twelve cars well filled vita Las
sengers behind me. AT that time there
was a telegraph station about a quarter
of a mile north Of the curve ca lee
Wilson's The express generally haC
clear track, and orders were nevel
given it only when Of great Importance
r Owing to this fact ii made very fas
time, and at that point usually ran fort,
or fort y-flve miles an hour. As ] swunI
in sight OF this little lonely watch box
saw that the red signal was down, ant
after a fierce pull at the whistle / re
versed the lever and put on the air. W,
came to a stop In hurry, and thinking
orders were awaiting me, made breal
! for the office to secure them withou
losing any more time than necessary.
Pushing open the door saw the op
orator lying back In his chair, as
thought fast asleep. There was a stronl
. odor OF coal gas in the room, but in th
heat Of passion at what thought was
case OF neglect of duty. paid no atten
tion to this, but grabbing him by th,
collar OF his coat, yanked him out o
/, the chair on to the door As he was
little slow coming around, caught up
bucket OF water and threw the contents
over him, bringing him to his senses in
: stanter.
Where's my ordersi What's the re,
down forp' shouted into his ears.
There's no orders. I must hav
= gone to sleep OF tainted. Everything
4 ell right, he replied in a dazed sort Q
4 way.
with an oath--I used to swear then
Irushed back to my engine, whistled 70
fiRgman, and pulled out, vowing ven
. geance on that operator in the shape c
q report to the superintendent upon m
arrival at Washington, That repor
never went in.
II had COTTON my train under way an
b was going only about iive miles an hou
when, Just a5 we swung around Nj
Gruder's curve, the track sank under m'
Z and with loud crash and splinterln
of buffers we came to a dead stop. wit
the front part Of my engine sunk abou
three feet below the track In the mu
) and gravel. There ls q dangerous quicl
sand there, and It had washed aboJ
fifteen feet Of the earth away from unde
the track. Owing TO our rate ofsp ed,
e good shaking up was about all we 20
but suppose for one minute that that re
signal had not been down on us at Wi