The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-10-21
ON THE CHICAGO FLYER.
Tho Terrible Strain Sustained by
tho Engineer.
Three Hours the Limit Of Time the
Stoutest OF EDgineers Arc Able to En-
dure the Severe Tag Upoo +
Their Ensrgies.

The Chicago flyer is not driven by
one but by many engineers, says
writer in McClure's Magazine. In or
der to cover the nine hundred and six
ty-four miles between the two cities IN
twenty hours, including nine stops,
there are required seven huge engines
in relays, driven by seven griny heroes.
A run Of less than one hundred and
fifty miles is the limit per day for each
engine, while three hours of the plung-
ing rush wears out the strongest en-
gineer. Sixty, seventy, eighty miles
an hour-what does that mean to the
man at the throttle? 1t means that the
six and half feet drivers turn five times
every second and advance one hundred
feet. The engineer turns his head five
seconds to look at the guages, and in
that time the terrible iron creature,
putting forth the strength of thou
sand horses, may have shot past n red
signal with it's danger warning five,
hundred feet away. Ten seconds, and
one thousand feet are left behind-one
fifth OF a mile. Who knows what hor-
rors may lie within that thousand feet!
There may be death lurking round
curve. death spreading its arms in
tunnel, and the engineer must see and
be responsible for everything. Not
only must he note instantly all that is
before him, the signals, switches.
bridges, the passing trains and tho
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 circumstances where second is
an age In the three hours of his vigil
there are ten thousa nd eight hundred
seconds, during each one of which he
must watch with the mental alertness
of an athlete springing for flying
trapeze from the roof of an amphithea-
ter, with the courageous sclf-posses-
sion of matador awaiting the deadly
rush of maddened bull; and far more
depends upon the engineers watching
well, because if he fails by hairs
breadth in GOODNESS or precision OF
Judgment there may come destruction,
not only to himself, but to hundreds of
passengers, who, while he stands guard,
are perhaps grumbling at the walters
in the dining car or telling funny
stories in the smoker.
'What would you do in collision?"
asked
The engineer pushed back the little
black skullcap from his iron-gray hair
and said:
"It is pretty hard to say what a man
should do when he hears the whistle OF
danger ahead or sees that crash is
coming. Even the best of us are liable
to get confused at such a moment.
What would you do if you woke up in
the night and found a burglar holding
a pistol at your head? There are no
rules for such cases. What would not
do, though, is to reverse my engine.
although many engineers are liable to
lose their heads at a critical moment
and make that mistake. 1t is curious
thing that reversing your engine sud-
denly when going at high speed makes
the train go faster instead of slower.
The reason is that the drivers slip and
the locomotive shoots ahead as if she
were on skates. The only thing to do
is to put on the air-brakes and pray
ha rd -