The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-04-09
BREAKING A RECORD.
ny ROBERT BARR.

BY ROBERT BARR.
The manager of the London & Glas-
Cow 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, If the
record breaker did not say anything
about it in public, but If newspaper &C.
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
1t 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,
las q person owning an American watch,
to come upon the trip, but begged me
to say nothing whatever about 1T, 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 q
watch himself which wouldn't split the
minutes, let alone the seconds, and 80
he would like to have q really good
watch with which to keep the time.
i was to meet him at the London ter
minus of the London & Glasgow air
line at exactly 12, midnight, three
weeks ago. There was some little risk
in going out at that hour, for it is we'll
known that one Of the most obnoxious
and oppressive laws made by Queen Vic
ltoria herself is that every man ;spn-
don must be in his own house at 8: 40
O'Clock, and have lights out and be in
bed at nine. Anyone out after that
hour is liable to arrest, SO stole up ana
down through by streets and lodged
the policemen until 1 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 trnin," he replied. Il 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 I concluded to take a
freight car, and If we have smash-up
lit 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 q rec
ord the fewer you have on board the
better; watches differ. and it would be
bad II there was quarrel about time;
your watch shall be the only official
time piece in the company; mine, az
think 1 told you in the letter, general.
ly loses two hours out of the "a, SO ]
think we had better not trust to it."
strapped myself to one stool and
Swipes strapped himself TO the othe,
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 We're thus
safely out of the influence of London.
The distance from London to Glas
gov is 4O1.5 miles. We had for enginee,
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 M
brakeman. because, as Swipes said, I
was not op the brakes we were going tt
depend for breaking the record.
The engine was known as the Mar,
Jane, and familiar to all the operator
on the road as "Her Golden Hair L
Hangin' Down 'er Back" She gets thi
nickname from her great speed, an
from the fact that the smoke with tn,
sparks in 1t trails out behind like
great banner.
After leaving Highgate Peter CAV
her more steam, and the speed began I,
be something appalling.
"Oh. it's nothing to what we'll hav
by and by" said Swipes. as he watche
me making an Intellectual grab at m,
hat. which disappeared in the darkness
Swipes counted the mile-stones Will
! ticked of the seconds on my watch
and before long we were going 10 mile
an hour. We had the advantage owe
the American road in the fact tha
there are rarelv any level road crcss
ings In England. and that ons nj
way 10 never allowed to cross anothG
on the level. BY the time We pasps
J Iosd-m-the. Hole We were doing I