The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-11-28
Catching a Runaway Engine

sThe liveliest time l ever experienced
was in chasing a runaway engine" said
an old railraod man to party of friends
recently. II was an engineer on the
Northern Michigan and Lake Superior
Line at the timer he continued, "and
we pulled.a fast freight between. Michi-
CANINE and Menomonee. We stopped at
a little station called Maple Ridge one
afternoon, as usual, for water, but had
to wait awhile for an engine which was
taking water at the time. The fireman
was on the tender guiding the spout
from the tank. and the engineer stepped
down from the cab to do some oiling.
The enigne was ready to go out on a
passenger train, and had high pressure
of steam, the smoke belched from the
stack, and the locomotive gave leap
forward as a horae woald if prodded
with sharp stick. The fireman was
thrown off, and the engineer jumped
aside to see the engine start down the
track at an alarming rate of speed.
We knew instantly what had happened.
The pressuree of steam had been.so great
as to blow the throttle open and let the
was now running away, and we knew
that she would go on at that alarming
rate of speed until the fire died out under
her boiler OF she collided with some OBJ
stacle. What to do was evident. The
runaway must be caught, and every Sec
ond lost was valuable; probably lives
depended on it.
The operator had seen the engine start.
and was already pounding desperately on
his key to clear. the track and notify the
superintendent. Uncoupiing our engine
pulled the throttle .open, the fireman
shovelled in the coal, and we started in
pursuit. We had enough water in our
tank to last for some time, and trusting
in Providence to bring US safely out, we
began the fastest ride ever experienced.
The runaway had about two minutes the
start of US, and for. the first few miles at
least would gain on us. Our hope lay
in keeping pace with her for some dis
lance, and then gradually closing up the
gap between us. If we passed the first
few stations safely, it was quite probable
that the track would be clear for us after
that.
Campbell was the first station, and
we whizzed by at a rate OF speed which
made the station appear like little
streak of brown. Five miles had been
covered, and we felt sure we were hold
ing our own in thesexciting race. Three
miles further we sped by the little town
of Beaver and Perkins, which is one mile
further, seemed to be part Of the same
place, and thus the race con tinued AS
we proceeded we saw crowds of people
gathered about the stations who cheered
/ us as we PASSED, but their cheers
scarcely reached our ears above the
laundering OF sour locomotive. After
we reached Narena, thirty three miles
from Maple Ridge we began to expect
some trace of the fugitive. We did not
let up on our speed land as there were
no sharp curves, we had a view of the
track for a mile ahead. Finally. rom
behind a patch OF timber, we sighted
her bowling along at very sharp rate.
but knew we were gaining on her fast.
A piece of upgrade was ahead, and we
now felt that our prey was. in our grasp
Gradually we drew up behind the
runaway until not more than 100 yards
were between u.s. Both engines were
going at speed Of twenty-five miles an
hour, and l called to the fireman to take
the throttle. Then I elm bed down on
to the pilot and waited for us to come
up. When we touched there was lar
and / had good opportunity to climb
on board. Crawling over the coal into
the cab, I shut off the steam, and the
runaway engine was captive again. y
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.