The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1896-11-12
WARTIME; RAILROADING,
\ Veteran Conductor Tells Intcrcst'
ing Experiences OF the Long Ago
Nn lriShman'S Narrow f.Scupc

IN Irshnan'S Narrow Escape.
The Atlanta Constitution gives The
following "reminiscences Of an old con
duCtOr, who WAS right in the heart Of
the lighting region n Georgia during
the war. He is Il native Of Anderson
! County:
I Captain y. T. Bell. an Old railroad
/ conductor, who helped to build the
! Western and Atlantic years ago and
, aft HrWar,:s ran on il. l. in Atlanta. lie
/ spent abnumhur Of years on the Cincin-
natl Southern, was injured some time
ago and had to Quit railrouding. He
Is 4 brother OF Captain Sanford Bell. 4
wciI-Nn0"n conductor Of Atlanta. Cap
tain \. L, Bell il full OF interesting
"reminiscences Of railrOnUng in the Old
days. and he has en- bodied some Of
them in 4 volume.
Captain Bell says that the first rail
road he ever saw was at Hamburg ).
G. He did not see an engine then, and
the first engine he ever saw was at
SocIat Circle. Ga...Or the Georgia road.
Social Circle was then the terminus Of
the Georgia road, which was being built
from Augusta to Marthasville. Then
he was thirteen years old. His father
moved from Social Circle to Marietta
l
place where Atlanta stands now when
Il small boy, and when it was called
Whitehall Crossroads. At that time
the hotel, postOliicc and storchouses
were built Of hcwcd logs. But never
once, at that time, thought of it be-
coming my lavOrltc city as il is at the
present day.
"Tnc second engine ever saw was
when the state road was built from
Atlnnta TO Marietta. a light engine
Was ran from Atlanta to Marietta one
Saturday evening. 1t Was the first en-
giu2 that ever ran into the town.
WnCn the engine whistlcd everybody
in the town ran as fast as they could,
oSp, Gladly The men and the boys, to
one pot, where the engine was to stop.
| saw horses and mules running away.
nat never thought Of my own mule
until got ready to go home. Tncn
found that it had broken loose and
run away along with the others"
Some time after that young Bell
went TO WORK on the road as section
hand. lie gives this description OF
the r0udDCI and track, which were sc
different frOm those Of today:
" \ piece OF hcwcu timber was laiC
on each side OF the roadbod lengthwiso
and the crOsstics were laid on the
stills. which were called mud sills. a
Suuar" piece Of long sawed tim Der
called Il strinGcr, was let into the ties
The rail was a fiat irou rail with spike
holes through the top. 1t was spiked
down on top OF the stringcr."
Daring the war Captain Bell was
running Il train between Atlanta iln(
Chattanooga on tho state road. "Rail.
roading was almost as bad as being il
the army" ho says, for men were
run day and night, Sundays not except
cd. | have gone into Atlanta man,
times, got of one train and stepped
right on another to go back to Chat
tanooga.' In those days when a TRAIN
got on schedule the conductor sent
la2man ah cad to flag down any trail
coming in tho opposite direction. The
soldiers did not like the railroad mel
and used to say that the trainmci
ought to be in the army. Captain Bel
| handled Il great many soldiers up an(
| down tho road. One night he took Jh,
Louisiana Tigers out Of Atlanta, ant
| by the time they reached Chattanoogi
he concluded that "jungle tigers
would be 81 better name for them, a.
| they fought among themselves tho
whole time. Two or three were knock
cd OF the train. They threw the grcas
DQCKclS ana tftln CilttlnS dG CdCil OIllC
and were a hard set.
| In those days every man had T.
| look out for HIMSELF" says Captail
Bell. zone night was coming up from
the river TO Atlanta. My engine wa
slipping. although | had nothing bu
a,caboosc. Having.a proscntimcnttha
something might happen, ! stepped OF
the caboosc and walked along behind
AS we rounded curve ! saw Il ligh
engine coming at full speed behind u+
ran back and signalcd the spccia
just in time to avoid an accident
The veteran conductor says he la,
for an engineer once Il man who wa
employed at the roundhousc wiping OF
engines. The master machinist dc
cllrcd one day it took half of his tim
watching this wiper, and the latter re
tortcd that it took all his time watch
ing the master machiniat.
Captain Bell was at Dalton when tn
historic engine the General, was re
captured from the Andrews raiders
who mad stolen it from Engineer Jc,
Cain at Big Shanty. " took u trai
load Of coal with tho same engine o.
her return to Atlanta from DaltOr
Joe RCnard. who ia still running q
the Western and Atlantic, was my cr
ginccr."
At that time the state road was har
ding Il great quantity OF corn betwcc
Atlanta and Chattanooga for Genera
Bragg's army. There wasa colonel q
Rome with some troops, and he use
to go down to Kingston and order cor
, ductors to switch out three or fou
, loads OF corn which we're waybillcd t
Bragg's army. One day this colonC
met Conductor B1ll's train and ordcrc
him to set out three car loads OF corr
: Bell protested, but the colonel insist
ed. Finally the conductor pretendc
to consent, and said he would run u
} to tho switch and back down. Fl
walked up to the engine and told tn
; ngineer to pull out for dear life. TIL
engineer did SO, and they left the co
onel looking mad and swearing. /