Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-09
RUNNING ON COLD AIR.
An Engineer Who Was Surprised by
His Locomotive Going
Up GRADE WITHOUT ANY STEAM.
Pittsburg Delegates to the BrotherhoodS
Annual Meeting.
AN OLD-TIME TRIP TO PHILADELPHIA
P GRADE WITHOUT ANY STEAM.
An oLD-TIME TRIP TO PHILADELPHIA

An OLD-TlME TRIP TO PHILADELPHIA
The "tie pile" gossip that is exchanged
between trainmen while being held up on
the siding for No. 3 to pass, generally from
one TO two hours late, is sometimes very in
teresting. Here and in the yard can always
be found men who have worked on nearly
every line in the country. and of the few on
which they have not labored they have a
perfect knowledge and can give a complete
history, telling all about the mileage, rolling
stock, names of officers, and when and how
often they have been discharged from other
lines dwelling longest upon the case of that
meanest man, the superintendent of the
Fourteenth division. A great deal of this
''tie pile tall, reaches the ears of
the trainmaster or division su-
perintendent, and they will tell you
it is strange how close the men come to
secrets that are supposed to be safely locked
in the Presidents Office, but have in
some unaccountable manner leaked out.
They have information from all of the de-
partments, and can tell of the placing of an
order for ten new engines by the purchas-
ing department, and where the order will
60, so davs before it reaches the manufac-
turer's hands. They will also tell You in
February that the passenger department
has booked the A. o. H. f. S. for Niagara
Falls on the Fourth of July. If one wants
100 plans for 100 couplers. numerous auto
matte brakes and perfect system of sig
mails. he can get it here. Could some of the
plans promulgated be improved upon many
useful inventions in railroad science might
result.
The Story Well vouched For.
The following is told by Travelling Pas
senCer Agent Worden, of the Lake Erie
road He vouches for its truthfulness, and
would furnish a statement from the engineer
story is that he died shortly after the event
related. The story is given in the first
person as it was TO him.
in 1876 was firing old No 6S on the Sec
ond division of the Atlantic and Great
Western Railway between Kent, o., and
MeadviIle. We lett Kent one hot night in
August with 81 empties. running as second
section of train ca The regular and our
burg for No. i, and in so doing
We Knocked big hole in the
tank Of 6s that cut Off our water supply in
about half a minute. The accident was re-
ported to Meadville. and we were ordered to
cut loose from our train, and attached to the
caboose of the regular our crippled engine
was to be taken into the shops at Meadville.
After blowing the water out of our boiler,
and without disconnecting any of the parts
of the engine, we finally started ont of
Ieavittsburg. Ny engineer went into the
caboose and stretched himself out on the
cushions, and / climbed into the cab OF the
disabled engine and made myself as COM
Portable as possible.
Now the main line between Kent and
Noadville is, or was at the time, a very I'M
even piece OF road. being up hill and down
dale the deepest dale being at Crawfords
and the highest hill at Evansburg. The
addition OF our engine to the train of regu-
lar 81 seemed to worry their engineer con-
sideTablv, and in ascending several slight
grades we nearly stalled.
A Surprise for the Engineer.
However we reached that part of the
road where we were to begin the descent
into Crawfords' Hole, and knowing how
nadly the trains rushed down the grade
and how wildly the brakemen flew from car
to car, with a view to tighten their labors in
4 measure, l threw the lever of old 6S
the throttle wide open. Until this mo-
ment / had never given a thought
to the action of the machinery of a locomo-
tive, except as being supplied with force
from its own interior. Imagine then my
surprise and horror as l saw the hand on
the steam gauge suddenly start from its peg
and move slowly around the face Of the
dial. Demons had certainly taken posses
sion of the old engine, for there was no: a
spark of fire in her furnace and her boiler
was as empty as drum: yet here, as we
rounded the curve at the bottom of the
hole and struck the ascending grade, the
gauge showed pressure of 95 pounds. My
eveS.were fairly bursting in their sockets. /
closed the throttle, threw the lever forward
and tainted dead away.
How long l remained uncon scious never
knew. but wher l regained my senses the
tIstin was running backward, crowding my
en- rine before it, and swaying from side to
side as though it would topple over into the
ditch. Involuntarily / grasped the throttle
and another lurch of the engine caused me
to jerk it open. / then saw that we were
nearing the foot of Crawford's hole, and
realized that the train had parted near the
top Of the grade, and that six cars and old
t. had run mad race TO the bottom. The
steam gauge showed l40 pounds, and the
next moment the pop let go and was sur
pTiscd at the sudden stop she made after
striking the ascending grade. immediately
she started ahead, with regular ex hausts and
seemed to be worKing all right. She pushed
those six cars to the top of the hill, and soon
overlook the other part of the train that
had come to stop about Tour miles away.
Operated by Cold Air.
"With the engine moving forward, lever
thrown back and throttle open the action
OF the valves and piston head or follower
hal been reversed, and had acted as an air
pump taking the air in at the nozzle and
forcing it into the boiler through the dry
pipe. Going down Evansburg hill again
filled old 6S until she popped and after
passing the junction helped the train into
the yard, blew the necessary signals placed
the cabOose on the side track and then took
the engine into the shop, the gauge showing
40 pounds when l left her While
the engine was working a singular
phenomenon occurred, for when she
thought were clouds of snow blown from her
stack. Arriving at the shop were l could
examine her found her hood filed with
snow and ice, while huge icicles were hang
ing from her machinery and there were
fully four inches Of snow on the top of her
cab. Old IS had turned into 4 veritable ice
machine, and l was confined TO my bed over
caught at the time. This think is the only
case on record (that Is where the fact can be
prOVen) where locomotive has done a half
DAYS work on wind.
Il had nearly forgotten the occurrence re-
lated above, and it might have passed from
my memory forever, mad not witnessed the
actual application of atmospheric pressure
on n railroad. In the winter OF 1890 was on
prospecting tour in the Sierra Madre
mountains that run along the eastern line of
the state of OaXaca, in Mexico. 1t was on a
short narrow gauge line whose only traffic is
ore from the mountains to the town of
Gullapa. The locomotive was simply q