The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-08-09
SAVED A COLLISION.
AN ENGINEERS STORY OF A CAPRI
cloUs LOCOMOTIVE.

Was Mad Clean Through -- When lie
Knew of the Operators oversight, lie
Changed His Mind About the Engine.
II will tell you about one of the stran-
gest freaks of n locomotive that ever oc-
CURED In my experience on the road, :"
| said Harmon p Butler, the best known
Southern Pacific engineer in California,
the other day. "1t happened in the sum
.ner Of 1884, when l was pulling freight
| from Tucson, A. T., to Los Angeles, and
have never como across anybody who could
give an explanation of my experience, and
have never been able to see through IL 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 thore at mid
night. Somehow everything seemed to go
wrong that night. The fireman seemed to
he 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 tho oil valves, and tho
boiler never made steam SO slowly To
make matters worse, the train dispatcher
kept us In tho station u plump hour past
regular leaving time, and just before we
started the conductor cnmo to me and said
the general superintendent was on board
the train and would go way through with
| us.
II ought to say here, oven II 1t does
sound egotistical, that had at that time
made tho best time known over the South
ern Pacific and was generally doputod to
haul the big bugs from the cast over the
| x-ha H., ,t,l
and wanted extra consideration.
This was the first time the superin-
tendent had ever been on my train, and of
course / was anxious to sustain my good
reputation. But the fates wore against
moan hour late, the night dark and
stormy. Well, we pulled out of the station
with my mind made up to reach our dos
tination on tlmo if the wheels would stay
under hor. As soon rs We were out of
Tucson put on all the steam and let her
CO. 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 1t was no go. She
would not stoam well in spite of his excr-
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. l profess to know
my business pretty well and can get speed
out Of an engine II any man can, and my
heart was down below zero when we be-
gan to drop behind our regular running
time But II was no use. Everything was
against ms. was mad clear through.
"Whcn we left Maricopa, we were an
hour and ten minutes late, and the con-
ductor had just made remark that net
tied me quite little. had asked him if
there We're any orders at Maricopa. He
answered, None, except to try to get to
Yuma in time for dinner. which was pure
sarcasm for II we made our running time
we would be there in time for breakfast.
Well, my heart was clean down in my
boots, and when I shut off the steam 90
ing into Big Wells found tho water so
low in the boiler that something had to
be done for the pump before we could
leave that station, as thcro was then
heavy grade to climb for several miles
informed the conductor that we would be
delayed 5 or 90 minutes with tho work Of
taking down one Of tie pumps and then
proceeded with the work.
1--WE were just about ready to start again
when l heard the sharp whistle of an en-
gine, and looking up | saw special tour
list excursion train 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 neg
locted to give us meeting order for this
train. Had 1t not been for tho pumps we
would have dashed on 10 what would prob
ably have bccn ono Of tho 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 charn--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 wOriling-and the old engine
seemed to dart along with twice her usual
speed Gradually she began TO pick up
time again, ana in the next 30 miles we
made up Is minutes which was lightning
speed in those days. There wore just 10
minutes to mako up the last 20 miles in,
and I need not say that we pulled into our
destination on time. Here was an instance
Oh a CRANKY engine saNlnS COIlislOn tnat
would probably have resulted in great
loss of life and property.
Railroading Is full Of such experiences
AS to the peculiarities OF engineers, it is
not best for mo to say much, for l am
queer sort of u 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 heavy oak club that he
always has aboard the locomotive when he
takes her. Old Hank Turley, who ran on
the Central Pacific from Ogden to Reno
for 25 years, would never sleep anywhere
but in his engine cab when he was out on
the road because, he said, he knew from
hundreds of experiments that his own en-
gine wanted constant company day and
night in order to give the best speed in
her. He told me that he had left his en-
| gine alone several times in the roundhouse
at night, just to prove TO himself that he
made no mistake in his belief, and that no
invariably made poor time and had much
trouble with the machinery for several
days afterward.
"The locomotive engineers here think