The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-01-11
A CARS EsCAPADE.
1T STARTED a NEW BREED OF CAT
TIE IN TIE DELAWARE VALLEY.

Coo Little's ellis end His Train Failed to.
Agree When lie Reaohed Port Jervis,
Tho Explanation oGered Tor the Cars
Strange freak.
lit isn't likely that there is cny of
the Coo Little breed Of cattle left in the
upper Delaware valley" said a veteran
railroad man, because, by this time,
their identity must have been destroyed
though mixture with other breeds. 1t
doesn't matter, for there was nothing
OF particular note about that breed Of
cattle, sxcept the way they happened to
DO ~introdaced into that locality.
In those days live stock transporta-
tion was n of the Erie's big items of
traffic. Trains half q mile long, louded
with horned cattle, horses, sheep and
hogs. used to pass over the road two or
three times a day. Such q thing is al
most n curiosity nowadays. Coe Little
was conductor Of one of these stock
trains between Susquehanna and Port
Jervis. he left Sus9uehanna one night,
in those good old days of railroading,
with q long train of cattle cars. Those
trains We're next to passenger trains in
class, and were rrn over the road a-hum-
ming. Conductor Little delivered his
train at Port Jervis IN time, and hand
cd over his way bills, which he had re-.
ceivod at Susquehanna, and on which
the number, character and contents Of
every chr in his train were recorded.
When the agent at Port Jeryis compared
Little's train on this voucher, one car
was missing. Tho car was entered on the
way bill as having left Su%squehanna all
right, but it wasn't in tho train. It's
place, according to the bill. was about
III the middle of the train.
We'll, here was q situation. Coe
Little declared that every cur was in
tho train when he left Susquehanna, for
he had checked the number Of each one
on the way bill himself. He certainly
hadn't delivered the missing car to any
one on the way, and he couldn't sec how
any one could have ,sneaked in and sto-
len it, especially as the train had been
on the move pretty much all the time
between Susquehanna and Port Jervis.
a ,ssssl,granI was sent to the agent at Sus-
q%uehanna, asking for information about
tho missing car. The reply was that
nothing was known there that could
throw any light OH the subject; quite
the contrary, for the agent corroborated
Littlo's report. The car was in the train
when it left Susquehanna.
During the efforts Of tho puzzled
railroad men at Port Jervis to solve the
mystery of tho lost car, some one dis
covered that the CIR that should have
been just behind the missing one was
coupled to the mi that should have
been just ahead Of it without the aid of
q coupling pin, the link being broken in
such II way that it had become a hook,
which was fast in the pinhole in the
coupler of the other cur. This didn't
help matters q little bit, and rather
deepened the mystery.
"They were still deep in efforts to
solve the mystery, and n car tracer was
about to be sent back over tho road to
see if he could find tho car, when n tele-
gram came from Shohola, q station 1G
miles west OF Port Jervis. The agent at
that station said in effect that some
body's cattle car was astray in O field
along the Delaware river just beyond
Shohola station, and that somebody had
better come and look after it. Tho
wrecking gang was sent up from Port
Jervis, and, sure enough, i'll the middle
of IA field, 100 feet or moro from tho
railroad, stood the missing cattle car,
right as Il trivet, except that its doors
were open and its cattle gone. To get
where 1t was tho car had run down q
ten foot embankmont, across a wagon
road and through Il stout rail fence.
There was only one way to explain
the freak of the car in quitting it's train
so unceremoniously. Going east along
that part of the Erie tho track is on a
heavy down grade. Just before reaching
Shohola the coupling pin that held the
car to the ono ahead of it must have
broken. This divided tho train in two
parts. This head car of the rear part
jumped the track, and breaking the link
thSt held it to tho car behind it, went
ON down tho bank, getting out of the
way of the cars following on the track.
when tho leading section of tho di-
vided train got to the foot of the grade,
its speed slackened. The hind section
caught up with it, and ran into the
rear car, but not with force sufficient to
do any damage or attract attention.
LIS DlohcH INK, MOI Il LOOK, happened
to fall into tho pinholo of tho coupler
ahead of it. The train was thus recou-
pied and went on to Port Jeryis without
tho loss Of n car right out of its very
center having been discovered by any
one. There is no parallel to this ono in
the record of mislaps to railroad trains,
an it has never ceased to be a wonder
to Il, old time railroad men.
well, whether tho doors Of the fugi-
tive car Wera broken nv tho inr md inIt