Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-02
A RUNAWAY TRAIN.
An Old Railroad Engineer Tells of .
Startling Experience.

From the Chicago Chronicle.
Il lived then in a small MASSACHUSETTS,
city. and managed a road where every en-
ploye, from the section men up. was per-
sonally known to me. and railroading was
more of a pleasure than it is here where
the roads are so vast and long that one
hardly knows the members of his own Of
flee staff. My office windows, 1 remember,
looked out directly upon the principal bus
mess street of the place and the entrance
to the Union depot, the street crossing the
tracks at right angles not twenty feet from
the great arched station entrance. Every
hour or two New York and Boston express
trains were arriving and departing. and 1t
was always an interesting sight the day be-
fore Thanksgiving, when every train was
running in two or three sections, and each
one drawn by two locomotives. loaded down
with passengers anxious to get to the Did
farm in time for the Thanksgiving dinner.
lone snowy, clustering day 1 sat wait
ing to see the IL % train pull in from Bos-
ton for somehow l kind of smelt danger,
as railroad man often does. 1 knew the
train was heavy one, the rails slippery.
and that before it struck the crossing IL
came down a heavy grade four miles long.
Out at the other end of the depot was
great long bridge carrying the train OF to
the west, and also the tracks branching
south to New York. On both these tracks
stood huge locomotives blowing off steam
and seemingly in haste to couple on to the
coming train, which. was destined for both
the south and west and hurry it off to its
destination. Well, to make a long story
short, that train got the best of the engi-
neer that day, owing to some defect in the
air brakes, and there was one OF the most
Embarrassing train runaways l guess l Will
ever witness A mile up the grade / heard
old Seth Mayor, the engineer, making old
iO4 whistle for brakes in a way that made
me turn cold. Almost at the same time the
train came tearing down over the street
crossing and into the depot, going sixty
miles an hour, and l remember to this day
and always will how cool Mayor looked as
he dashed by. blowing his whistle for dear
life as warning to give him clear track
That they would even get those engines
at the other end of the station out of the
way 1 thought was an impossibilty, but
they did. There were cool men about that
place that day, and No. 1Ofs great Craw-
ford whistle had given the warning. The
switches were hastily set straight on to the
bridge and away dashed the waiting engine
in a race to get out of the way of the runa-
way train. 1t was close shave, and 1t I'M
nerved me for a week. but luck saved the
day That runaway ran four miles before
it stopped, and the engineer with the light
engine tearing along ahead of ii was be-
ginning to wonder if the tracks were clear
way out to Buffalo, when the brakes work
ed and the runaway was brought to stop.
For years / have been wondering how that
train ever dashed down that grade and
through the crowded depot, following the
switches in and out, without most fright
full smaSh-up.
odd Seth Mayor, when he stepped down
from the cab after backing back, regarded
il as huge joke, but it scared everybody
else within a mile of the station out OF a
weeks growth"