Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-08-12
SAVED A COLLISION.
AN ENGINEERS STORY OF A CAPRI
cIoUS LOCOMOTIVE.

1 IiSOS I0SSWo
She Refused to Do Good Work. and Butler
Was Mad Clean Through When He
Knew of the Operators Oversight, He
| Changed His Mind About the Engine.
81 will tell you about one of the stran-
| gest freaks of q locomotive that ever oc-
| Cured in my experience on the road, y
| said Harmon p. Butler, the best known
| Southern Pacific engineer in California,
| the other day at 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 able to SEQ 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. 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 a 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.
II ought to say here, even If it does
sound egotistical, that l 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 special car
and wanted extra consideration.
"This was the first time tho superin-
tendent had ever been on my train, and Of
course 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 as we were out of
Tucson l 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 began to be impa-
tient and scoldcd 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-
tions. 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. 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 1t 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 q remark that net
tied me quito little. 1 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 shut off the steam 60
ing into Big Wells l found the water so
low in tho boiler that something had to
be done for the pump before we could
leave that station, as there was then a
heavy grade to climb for several miles.
informed the conductor that we would be
delayed Is or 20 minutes with the work of
taking down one Of the pumps and then
proceeded with the work.
"We were just about ready to start again
when 1 heard theSharp whistle of an en-
gine, and looking7up saw special tour
ist excursion trHln from southern Cali
fornia approaching from the very direction
In which we were going. When the train
pulled into the station, we found that the
telegraph operator at Maricopa had reg
lected to give us meeting order for this
train. Had 1t not been for the pumps we
would have dashed on to what would prob
ably have been one of the most terrible
collisions in the history of railroads
Now comes the remarkable part of the
story. From the time we left Big Wells
both pumps worked like charm-bear In
mind that found nothing whatever the
matter with the pump that had taken
down, and there was apparently no reason
for It's 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 so miles we
made up % minutes which was lightning
speed in those days. There were just 10
minutes to make up the last 30 miles in,
and l need not say that we pulled into our