Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1896-04-25
BREAKING A RECORD.
by ROBERT BARR.

BREAKING A RECORD.
ny ROBERT BARR.
The manager of the London &c Glas-
gov air line railway, Mr.. Swipes, sent
me an invitation marked private" say
ing that he was bound to beat the rec
ord made by the Lake Shore & Michigan
Southern railroad now that they had
come out in print about it. He added
that he thought record breaking in the
night time all right enough, il the
record breaker did not say anything
about it in public, but if newspaper ac-
counts were to be written then the
race should be open to outside parties
who might wish to know the time with
out asking policeman. He added that
when the New York Central broke the
English record they did SO with their
Empire State express, which anyone
could have travelled on who had the
money to pay his fare. This, he
claimed, was the right way of breaking
a record if you are going to write about
it afterward. Nevertheless he was 60
ing to follow the Lake Shore & Michi-
gan Southern fashion, just to see what
his railroad could do, and he invited me,
as person owning an American watch,
to come upon the trip, but begged me
to say nothing whatever about it, for,
he said, instead of breaking the rec
ord, we might perhaps break our necks.
He added that he regretted that he
owned only an old silver turnip Of a
watch himself which wouldn't split the
minutes, let alone the seconds, and so
he would like to have really good
watch with which to keep the time
/ was to meet him Mt the London ter
minus of the London e. Glasgow air
line at exactly IL, midnight, three
weeks ago. There was some little risk
in going out at that hour, for it is well
known that one of the most obnoxious
and oppressive laws made by Queen Vic
toria herself is that every man in Lon
don must be in his own house at $40
o'clock, and have lights out and be in
bed at nine. Anyone out after that
hour is liable to arrest, so l stole up and
down through by streets and lodged
the policemen until l came to the ter
minus. Here was amazed to find an
immense locomotive and one fiat car,
with two camp stools on it.
whats this for?" said to Swipes.
"We're going to break the record
with this train," he replied. 81 want to
have it as light as possible, for an ordi-
nary carriage meets with such resist.
ance in passing so quickly through the
atmosphere that concluded to take
freight car, and Il we have smash-up
it won't be so expensive"
''But you don't expect me to sit on
one of those stools in the open air from
here to Glasgow" cried, aghast.
"Oh, that's all right" he said. "The
stools are fastened to the floor of the
car, and have shawl straps with which
you can fasten yourself to the stool.
There won't be any trouble on that
score"
where are the other fellows?" l
asked.
"There aren't any," he answered.
when you are going to break rec
ord the fewer you have on board the
better; watches differ, and it would be
bad if there was quarrel about time;
your watch shall be the only official
time piece in the company; mine, as
l think I told you in the letter, general
ly loses two hours out of the "a, so
think we had better not trust to it."
1 strapped myself to one stool and
Swipes strapped himself to the other
and at 1915 we pulled out of Maryle-
bone terminus. 1t was agreed that we
were not to begin the record until we
had passed Highgate, and were thus.
safely out of the influence of London.
The distance from London to Glas-
gov is 401.5 miles. We had for engineer
Peter McGump, who was Scotchman,
and therefore knew the road to Glas-
gov well, and Billy Jones, of White
chapel, did the firing. We had no
brakeman, because, as Swipes said, it
was not on the brakes we were going to
depend for breaking the record.
The engine was known as the Mary
Jane, and familiar to all the operators
on the road as Her Golden Hair Is
Hangin' Down 'er Back" She gets this
nickname from her great speed, and
from the fact that the smoke with the
sparks in 1t trails out behind like n
great banner.
After leaving Highgate Peter gave
her more steam, and the speed began to
be something appalling.
"Oh, it's nothing to what well have
by and by" said Swipes, as he watched
me making an Intellectual grab at my
hat, which disappeared in the darkness.
Swipes counted the mile-stones while
licked off the seconds on my watch.
and before long we were going 70 miles
an hour. We had the advantage over
the American road in the fact that
there are rarely any level road cross
ings in England, and that one rail-
way is never allowed to cross another
on the level. BY the time we passed
Toad-in-the-Hole we were doing IS
miles an hour, but as the Lake Shore
train. has attained a speed OF 02.3.
Swipes yelled to Peter as we'll as he
could to give her more speed, because
If she didn't put in her best ticks now.
what could we expect when we came to
the high grounds and the stiff grades
of the midlands? This shouting of
Swipes, however, had no effect, be-
cause we were going so fast that his
words never reached Peter, who stood
with his hand on the lever, watching
grimly the track in front. AS Swipes
continued to shout out the mile posts.
/ cried:
Hold on, it's the telegraph poles you
are counting"
mo, it isn't" he replied, "it's the
mile posts"
Nonsense" cried. "At that rate
we are going at the rate of 1os miles an
hour"
"a hundred and eight it is then" he
said. "Stoke her up, Peter"
/ then called the general managers
attention to the fact that it was not
etiquette to tell an engine driver 10