Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-09-27
SAVED A COLLISION.
AN ENGINEERS STORY OF A CAPRI
CloUs LOCOMOTIVE.

She Refused to Do Good Work, and Butler
Was Mad Clean Through When He
Changed His Mind About the Engine.
IT will tell you about one of the sSran-
gest freaks of locomotive that ever oc-
Cured in my experience on the road, 4"
said Harmon p. Butler, the best known
Southern Pacific engineer in California,
the other day. sit happened in the sum-
mer of 1884, when was pulling freight
from Tucson, A. T.. to Los Angeles, and
have never come across anybody who could
give an explanation of my experience, and
have never been ablo TO see through it my
self. You may draw your own conclusions.
1.-The night l had my experience was
dark and stormy. 1t was in the period Of
peculiar storms and cloudbursts down in
Arizona. l was ordered from Tucson for
the overland express that left there at mid
night. Somehow everything seemed to go
wrong that night. The fireman seemed to
be slower than usual, and he had great
time getting his coal placed in the tender.
The locomotive hostler at the roundhouse
had forgotten to fix the oil valves, and the
boiler never made steam so slowly. To
make matters worse the train dispatcher
kept us in the station plump hour past
regular leaving time, and just before we
started the conductor came to me and said
the general superintendent was on board
the train and would go way through with
us.
IT ought to say here, even if it does
sound egotistical, that had at that time
made the best time known over the South
ern Pacific and was generally deputed to
haul the big bugs from the east over the
road whenever they came in u special car
and wanted extra consideration.
"This was the first time the superin-
tendent had ever been on my train, and of
course 1 was anxious to sustain my good
reputation But the fateS were against
mean hour late, the night dark and
stormy. Well we pulled out of the station
with my mind made up to reach our des-
tination on time if the wheels would stay
under her. AS soon rs we were out of
Tucson put on all the steam and let her
90. But she didn't seem to move at half
her usual speed, and then she didn't make
steam well either. | began to be impa-
tient and scolded the fireman for not do
ing good work with his fire. He seemed
to try his best, but it was no go. She
would not steam well in spite of his exer-
tons Then the pumps began to be trOu
blesome. One of them stopped working
altogether, and the other became more in
effective every minute. 1t began to dawn
on me that making up time was out Of
the question.
"You may imagine my feelings, for it
seemed to me as if my whole reputation
was staked on this trip. l profess to know
my business pretty well and can get speed
out Of an engine if any man can, and my
heart was down below zero when we be-
gan to drop behind our regular running
time. But it was no use Everything was
against me. was mad clear through.
"When we left Maricopa, we were an
hour and ten minutes late, and the con-
ductor had just made a remark that net
tied me quite little. I had asked him if
there were any orders at Maricopa. He
answered, None, except to try to get to
Yuma in time for dinner, which was pure
sarcasm, for if we made our running time
we would be there in time for breakfast
Well, my heart was clean down in my
boots, and when 1 shut off the steam 60
ing into Big Wells found the water so
low in the boiler that something had to
be done for the pump before we could
leave that station, as there was then
heavy grade to climb for several miles. I
informed the conductor that we would be
delayed 10 or 20 minutes with the work Of
taking down one of the pumps and then
proccedcu with the work.
ave were just about ready to start again
when heard the sharp whistle of an en-
CINE, and looking up saw a special tour
ist excursion train from southern Cali
fornia approaching from the very direction
in which we were going. When the train