The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-07
CAPRICIOUs LOCOMOTIVES.
A Western Engineer Tells How One
of Them Prevented an Accident.

of Them Prevented an Accident.
From the New York Sun.
Los Angeles, June 24.-"T will tell you
about one of the strangest freaks of q 20
connective that ever occurred in my ex-
perience on the road" said Harmon Y.
Butler, the best known Southern Pacific
engineer in California, the other day 1T
happened in the summer of 1854. when 1
was pulling freight from Tucson. Ariz.,
to Los Angeles. and have never come
across anybody who could give an cx-
PLANTATION of my experience. and have
never been able to see through it myself.
You may draw your own conclusions.
THE night I had my experience was
dark and stormy. 1t was i'm the period of
peculiar storms and cloudbursts down IN
Arizona. l was ordered from Tucson Cor
the overland express that left there at
midnight. Somehow everything seemed
to go wrong that night. The fireman SEEM
ed to be slower than usual, and he had
a great time getting his coal placed in the
tender. The locomotive hostler at .he
round house 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 a
plump hour past regular leaving time
and just before we started the conductor
came TO me and said the general superin-
tendent was on board the train and woul1
go way through with us..t s..
Il ought to say here, even IL 1t does
sound egotistical, that had at that time
the best time known over the Southern
Pacific, and was generally deputed TO
haul the big bugs from the east over the
road whenever they came in special car
and wanted extra consideration.
This was the first time the superin-
tendent had ever been on my train, and
of course l 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 destination on time if the wheels
would stay under her As soon as we
were out of Tucson put on all the steam
and let her go. But she didn't seem to
move at half her usual speed, and then
she didn't make steam well, either. l be-
gan to be impatient, and scolded the fire.
man for not doing good work with his
fire. He seemed to try his best, but 1t
was no go. She would not steam well, in
spite of his exertions. Then the pumps
began to be troublesome. One of thcDl
stopped working altogether, and the other
became more ineffective every minute. I,
began to dawn on me that making up time
was out of the question.
GU may Feelings, IOr II
seemed to me as If my whole reputation
was staked on this trip. / 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 began to drop behind our regular run
ming time. But is was no use. Everything
was against me. l was mad clear trough.
when we left Maricopah we were one
hour and ten minutes late, and the con-
ductor had just made a remark that net
tied me quite little. / had asked him II
there were any orders at Maricopah. 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 break
fast. Well, my heart was clean down in
my boots, and when / shut off the steam
going into Big Wells l found the water
so low in the boiler that something had %
be done for the pump before we could
leave that station, as there was then a
heavy grade to climb for several ns-.ts.
informed the conductor that we would be
delayed fifteen or twenty minutes with the
work of taking down one of the pumps,
and then proceeded with the work
I'VE were just about ready to star.
against when l heard the sharp whistle
Of an engine, and, looking up, 1 saw a
special tourist excursion train from South
ern California approaching from the very
direction in which we were going. When
the train pulled into the station we found
that the telegraph operator at Maricopah
had neglected TO give US meeting order
for this train. Had it not been for the
pumps we would have dashed on to what
would probably have been one of the most
terrible collisions in the history of rail-
roads.
Now comes the remarkable part of the
story. From the time we left Big Wells
both pumps worked like a charm-bear in
mind that / found nothing whatever the
matter with the pump that 1 had taken
down, and there was apparently no reason
for its not working-and the old engine
seemed to dart along with twice her usual
speed. Gradually she began to pick up
time again, and in the next fifty miles we
made up fifteen minutes, which was light
ming speed in those days. There were Just
nineteen minutes to make up the last
twenty miles in, and / need not say that
we pulled into our destination on time.
Here was an instance of cranky engines
saving collision that would probably
have resulted in great loss of life and
property.
"Railroading is full of such experiences.
AS TO the peculiarities of engineers, II is
not best for me to say much, for / am
a queer sort of fellow myself But there
Is one engineer running on this road now
who thinks his engine can feel, for when
she doesn't run fast enough to please him
he beats her with a heavy oak club that
he always has aboard the locomotive when
he takes her. Old Hank TURKEY, who ran
on the Central Pacific from Ogden to Reno
for twenty-five years, would never sleep
anywhere but In his engine cab when he