The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1893-02-03

Il
railroa d ing
stories are sure to follow ] have lis
tened for hours Co good yarns there
One day in the San Francisco round
house Of the Southern Pacific company
mention was made of u recent accident
which had been caused by the break
ing apart of freight train. This served
a. u reminder To the engineer from
Arizona. Taking II seat on the sidc-rod
Of locomotive he began:
~ think the liveliest ride and the
worst scare ever had was while | was
running out of Los Angeles tn Yuma in
the spring of so. Tho company was
building the road across Arizona then
and we were hauling material to the
front.
eve left Los Angeles one afternoon
with twenty six cars and caboosc
We went out doublc-hcader, with
two ten-whoel engines. | was running
il2 in advance, and Billy Stcwartson,
with the 1913, was coupled in behind me-
Next To the engines were some long
bridge timbers, eXtcn ded over three
Hat cars, from which the brake staifS
had To- be taken. Then there were six
cars loaded with redwood ties; then
thirteen cars of steel rails, twenty tons
60 the car. These cars were all Hats
OF course. Then came four box ears
loaded with giant powder, to be used IN
some heavy work ut the front.
"lts'a stiff pull most of the way from
Los Angeles to Cotton, and from there
20 San Gorgonio it's an up grade of u
hundred and twenty feet to the mile.
They gave us third engine from Col
ton 60 the top of the hill; and it was all
the three tcn-whcclers could do to take
that train up there.
I'VE stopped ut San Gorgouio and cut
ont the helper engine; and then when
every body was ready we started down
the hill.
Prom San Gorgonio il is nearly nll
down-gradc To ludio, sixty miles, and
for the first thirty miles the grade runs
from one hundred and twenty-five feet
TO seventy feet 10 the mile.
eve had half-Spanish boy called
Kid Vallejo braking ahead. lie was Il
good onc--as smart as steel trap. The
middle brakeman was rather light, and
the hind man was big, thicI-hcadcd
brute, who had no 'savvy,' and never
would know anything. The conductor
was slow, easy-going chap
"There weren't any air-brakcs on
freight trains then; nothing but hand
brakes. But we had air-brakes on the
tenders and stcam-braRc ON the loco
motive drivers.
at was about half-past nine ON IA
bright moonlight night when we start
cd down the grade About n mile out
felt the train jerk, and then we shot
ahead lively As | looked back, Billy
footed off brakes, and began 10 work
steam. | saw the two brakemcn
swinging their lights and signaling to
20 ahead
ut was so light that l could see that
the caboose and the four cars of pow
der had broken off, and were about ten
car-lengths behind the rest of the train.
The chucklc-headcd hind brakeman
had slapped up the caboose brake and
snapped the train apart, and we were
running down that grade in two pieces.
III ever that loose rear section struck
the forward one the concussiou would
be sure To explode the giant powder,
and then there would be an explosion
that would shake the earth, and send
the whole OF us To kingdom como.
I'VE pulled ost 10 get away from il,
and whistlcd and whistled FOR ths ca
boosc man co get out on the box cars
aud set some brakes; hut he didn't
show up. and in less than u mile we
were running fifty miles an hour, to
keep out of the way of the rear section,
and Increasing rapidly every second,
II realized IT once that we had got
20 check up soon or the train would
get away with us and land every body
and everything down in the canyon, u
thousand feet below. But what chance
were we going To get TO check up?
"Just then wo saw n light come up
ON the box cars, and knew that the
caboosc brakeman had got out at last
Then we felt sura hat he would stop
that section and the thing for MS to do
was Ia stop ourselves. ] set my tender
and driving brakes and started tho
sand running. and Billy did the same
with his engine.
''Setting mp allthose powerful brakes
nt once ON the forward end just acted
like humping post The slack
came mp against the engines with a
hang. and shifted the steel rails ahead
40 that they jammed every brake on
the steel cars. and put them In such a
etate that they could not BE- used.
There we were. flying down a hundred
foo' grade two engines and twenty.