The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-12-28

ss5szss ssS' lected there
railroa d in g
stories are sure to follow l have lis
tened for hours to good yarns there.
One day in the San francisco round
house of the Southern Pacific company
mention was made of recent acciden
which had been caused by the break
ing apart of freight train. This served
as a reminder to the engineer from
Arizona. Taking a seat on the side-rod
of a locomotive he began:
81 think the liveliest ride and the
worst scare l ever had was while / was
running out of Los Angeles to Yuma IN
the spring of 80. The company was
| building the road across Arizona then
and we were hauling material to the
| front.
! ''We left Los Angeles one afternoon
| with twenty-s six cars and caboose.
! We went out a double-hea der, with
/ two ten-wheel engines. was running
/ 112 in advance, and Billy Stewartson,
| with the 1913, was coupled in behind me.
Next to the engines were some long
! bridge timbers, eXten ded over three
! fat cars, from which the brake STATS
had to be taken. Then there were six
! cars loaded with redwood ties; then
thirteen cars of steel rails, twenty tons
! to the car. These cars were all flats,
! of course. Then came four box cars
loaded with giant powder, to be used IN
! some heavy work at the front.
/ Its stiff pull most of the way from
! Los Angeles to Cotton, and from there
to San Gorgonio it's an up grade of a
hundred and twenty feet to the mile.
They gave US a third engine from Col
ton to the top OF the hill: and it was all
the three ten-wheelers could do to take
that train up there.
1--WE stopped at San GorgOnio and cut
out the helper engine; and then when
every body was ready we started down
the hill.
From San Gorgonio it is nearly all
down-grade to Indio, sixty miles, and
for the first thirty miles the grade runs
from one hundred and twenty-five feet
to seventy feet to the mile.
''We had half-Spanish boy called
Kid Vallejo braking ahead. He was a
good one-as smart as steel trap. The
middle brakeman was rather light, and
the hind man was big, thick-headed
brute, who had no 'savvy,' and never
would know anything. The conductor
was slow, ca sy-going chap.
There weren't any air-brakes on
freight trains then; nothing but hand
brakes. But we had air-brakes on the
tenders and steam-brake on the loco
motive drivers.
at was about half-past nine on a
bright moonlight night when we start
ed down the grade. About a mile out
felt the train jerk, and then we shot
ahead lively. AS l looked back. Billy
footed eff brakes, and began to work
steam. ! saw the two brakemen
swinging their lights and signaling to
go ahead.
1T was so light that l could see that
the caboose and the four cars of pow
der had broken off, and We're about ten
car-lengths behind the rest of the train.
The chuckle-he AIDED hind brakeman
had slapped up the caboose brake and
snapped the train apart, and we were
IuAh4HA w ~ II blitAI = 1NAN Al WV bACSNS-
IF ever that loose rear section struck
the forward one the conclusion would
be sure to explode the giant powder.
and then there would be an explosion
that would shake the earth, and send
the whole of US to kingdom come.
I'VE pulled out to get away from it,
and whistled and whistled for the ca
bose man 10 get out on the box cars
and set some brakes; but he didn't
were running fifty miles an hour, 10
keep out of the way of the rear section,
and increasing rapidly every second.
II realized at once that we had got
TO check up soon or the train would
get away with us and land every body
and everything down in the canyon, a
thousand feet below. But what chance
Were we going TO get to check up?
Just then wa saw light come up
on the box cars, and knew that the
caboose brakeman had got out at last
Then we felt sure that he would stop
that section and the thing for Us 10 do
was 10 stop ourselves set nv tender
and driving brakes aud started the
sand running. and Billy did the same
with his engine.
Setting up all those powerful brakes
a. once on the forward end just acted
ike a humping post The slack
came up against the engines with a
bang, and shifted the steel rails ahead
SO that they damned every brake on
the steel cars. and put them in such
state that they could not be used
There we were. flying down hundred
foot grade-two engines and twenty
two heavy loaded czrs-and only SIX
brakes on the train.
Kid Vallejo and his partner doubled
on the brakes OF the tie cars, and ths
first thing they did was To break two
chains That left rs only four brakes
not enough to stop Us.
We shot by Bann-ur's station a. the
rate OF sixty miles an hour. the IRE
1yiuy from the drivInE wheels and the