Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-12-15

Lne steel car6s ana put them Tn sucn state that they could not be used There we were, flying down a hundred. foot grade-two engines and twenty two heavy loaded cars-and only six brakes on the train.
 ''Kid Vallejo and his partner doubled on the brakes on the tie cars, and the first thing they did was to break two chains. That left us only four brakes not enough to stop us.
 ''We shot by Earnings station at the rate of sixty miles an hour, the fire flying from the driving wheels and the tender brakes just burning up! The driving boxes were hot, and that stuck the wedges so that the engine rode like an old cart going over cobble- stones.
 Ut shook the oil cans off the shelf to the deck and jared out the cab lights. The coal was all shaken forward from the tender; it was pouring out of the gangway, and was a foot deep on the deck.
 Hooking back, we could see the ties working off the flat cars sidewise; they struck the ground endwise every other minute, and went off in the air like sky rocket, and then off down into the canyon.
 "The engines were heating all over, and the Rabbit metal was flying from the back ends of the main rods. was afraid my engine would tear herself to pieces, everything was shrieking and grooming so.
 ''We went past Cabazon station at the rate of seventy-five miles an hour The grade from Cabazon for six or seven miles is easier, and then there | comes a short curve, close in by the side of the mountain; it is way up on one side and way down on the other. Billy and his fireman were down on the tender steps, holding on for dear life, waiting for the crash on the curve. knew the chances were mighty slim for those two ten-wheelers to go around that curve. The speed began to reduce some, but we were still flying.
 My fireman crawled over to me and yelled: Let's wet the rail; it's our only chance for that curve"
 II nodded to him, and we started both injectors. Each had attached to | 1t an inch pipe with hose and nozzle | for cooling off the crank pins. We | leaned out of the cab and sent the water pouring right down over the front | drive wheels. That stream was as big | as your thumb, and went with the | force of stream from a fire engine. '"The speed must have slackened con- siderably before we struck the curve, but it seemed to me that we were go- | ing faster than ever. You couldn't see across the cab on account of the dust and smoke from the hot journals.
 My fireman yelled: Good-by, Jack, but he kept the water flying. I shut my teeth and held my breath, and said to myself: This is my last run; it's "Good-by, John," right here.'
 "When old 112 reached the curve I thought for a second she would cap size. Then thought she was off. But we kept the water a-pouring. Then came a jerk and a crash, and the flat cars left the rails, and those bridge timbers went sailing out into the air | and over the bank.
 "The flat cars began playing leap | frog over each other, and those steel rails just sheeted over and through those cars and ties, making match wood of everything.
 But the two engines were on the rail, and we stopped them after run ming two miles. They were all burnt and cut up, but they would move. and after putting out some torpedoes and red lights we backed up to the wreck
 ''We all thought that the water was the only thing that saved our engines on that curve.
 "Jimmy, my fireman went running around calling out: o Kid! O kiC
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