Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1894-1895, 1895-08-09
LOCOMOTIVES SEEM TO KNOW.
Engineer Tells of Sample Incident in
RaiirOading.


Il will tell you about one OF the
strangest freaks of Il locomotive that
ever occurred in my experience on the
road" said Harmon Z. Butler, the best
known Southern Pacific engineer in
California, the other day. 1T happen
cd in the summer Of 1884, when l was
pulling freight from Tucson. Ari., to
Los Angeles. and l have never come
across anybody who could give an ex,
PLANTATION of my experience, and have
never been able TO see through it N.Y.
self. You may draw your own conclu-
sions.
1.-THE night l had my experience was
dark and stormy. 1t was in the period
Of peculiar storms and cioudbursts
down in Arizona. / was ordered from
Tucson for the overland express that
left there at midnight. The fireman
seemed to be slower than usual. and
he had great time getting his Goa!
placed In the tender. The locomotive
hostler at the roundhouse had forgot
ten 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 Il plump hour past
the regular leaving time. and just be-
fore we started the conductor came 10
me and said the general superinten-
tent was Cn board the train and would
go way through with us. Well, We pull.
OIL Of rho 81 Will mr.
made up TO reach our destination OH
time If the wheels would stay under
her. As soon as 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. / began TO be impa-
tient, and Scolded the fireman fer not
doing good work with his fire. He
seemed TO try his best, but it was no so.
She would not steam Well, in spite of
his eXerti0ns. Then the pumps began
to be troublesome One Of them stopped
working altogether. and the other be-
came more ineffective every minute. 1t
began to dawn on ME that making up
time was out of the question.
when we left Maricopah we were
ore hour and ten minutes late, and the
conductor had just made a remark
that nettled me quite little. | asked
him If there were any orders at Mari
copah. He answered: None except 10
try to get TO Yuma in time fer dinner
which WAS pure sarcasm, for Il we
made our running time we would get
there in time for breakfast. 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 to be
done for the pump before we could
leave the station, rs there was then q
heavy grade to climb for several miles.
1 informed the conductor that we
would be delayed fifteen or twenty min
utcs with the work of taking down one
u the pumps. and then proceeded with
the work. We were just about ready
TO start again when l heard the sharp
whistle of an engine, and, looking up,
l saw Il special tourist excursion train
from Southern 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 lis meeting orders for this train.
Had it not been for the pumps we
would have rushed on to what would
probably have been one of the most
terrible collisions i'll the history OF rail
roads.
the story. From the time we left Big
Wells both pumps worked like II charm
bear in mind that | found nothing
whatever the matter with the pump
that l had taken down, and there was
apparently no reason for It's not work
ing-and the old engine seemed to dart
along with twice her usual speed. Grad
ually she began to pick up time again,
and in the next fifty miles we made up
fifteen minutes, which was lightning
speed in those days. There were just
nineteen minutes to make up in the last
twenty miles in, and / need not say
that We pulled into our destination on
time. Here was an instance of
cranky engine saving n collision that
would probably have resulted in great
loss of life and property. New York
Sun.