The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-12-02
AN ENGINEERS LIFE.
The story of Three Hours on the "Chicags
FLYER"


FLYER"
The Chicago FLYER" which covers
the nine hundred and sixty-four miles
between New York and Chicago ID
twenty hours, including nine stops,
Is pulled by seven huge engines in re-
lays driven by seven engineers in
succession. From an article, in Nc
Clure's Magazine We condense the
following:
A run OF less than one hundred and
fifty miles is the limit per day for
each engine, while three hours OF the
plunging rush wears out the strongest
engineer Sixty, seventy. eighty
miles an hour-what does that mean
10 the man at the throttle? 1t means
that the six and half feet drivers
turn five times every second and ad-
vance one hundred feet. Tic-tc-tic
and the train has run the length OF
New York's highest steeple. The
engineer turns his head for five Sec
onds To look at the gauges, and in
that time the terrible creature, put
ting forth the strength OF a thou
sard horses, may have shot past
red signal with its danger warning
i've hundred feet away. Not only
must he note instantly all that Is be-
fore him, the signals, switches,
bridges, the passing trains ana The
condition OF the rails, but he must
act at the same moment working
throttle, air-brakes or reversing lever
not as quick as thought, but Quicker,
for there is no time to think. His
muscles must do the right thing
automatically under cirumstan es
where a second is IN age.
In addition TO this constant men
tai tension the engineer on this hurl-
ing train has TO endure material dis
comfort, often bodily suffering. The
air sweeps back i'm his face with the
breath OF hurricane. blowing smoke
and cinders into his eyes Most peo-
pie know the intense pain n cinder
causes In Il mans eve, particularly a
hot cinder. The suffering Is almost
unhcarablc, and yet, suffering or no
suffering, the engineer who gets a
cinder In his eye can have no relief
until the end OF his relay. at seems
as IL nothing would rest my eyes sir"
said one OF the new men after his
first week on the flyer. No wonder
the cycsight OF engineers fails rapid
ly; no wonder many OF them are re-
moved from their positions every year
because the examining doctors find
them unable to distinguish the sig
nails. The engineer suffers also from
the plunging and tossing OF, the mon
ster locomotive, which bruises his
whole body with its violent rocking,
and causes sharp pains In the back,
particularly where there is any ten
dency TO kidney trouble. One has
only TO watch these strong men as
they stumble down from their en-
gincs at the end OF relay, has only
TO observe their condition OF pin steal
collapse which follows, to understand
what IL costs In vitality and grit To
drive fast engine.
Thus IL Is while the New Yorker
gets to Chicago with scarcely more
discomfort than IL he had remained
at home, the same Journey wears out
seven engineers, all picked men. for
many OF them who have seen years Of
service on trains running forty miles
an hour break down entirely when
put upon the flyer. so exhausted are
these seven engineers by their com
parativcly short relays that they are
obliged TO lay of entirely during the
following day To recover from the
shock They do not even take the
opposite bound flyer back over their
stretch, but return with their en-
gines TO their respective starting
points, drawing slower trains. Thus
seven strong men do two days work
every time the flyer runs from New
York TO Chicago, and seven other
men do two days work every time IL
runs back. Each engineer works
three hours on the '1yer," returns
home on an easy train, and then rests
forty hours before his muscles and
nerves and brain are i'm condition 10
repeat the operation.