Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1896-11-07
BREAKING A RECORD.

gov air line railway, Mr.. Swipes, sent me
an invitation marked "priyate," saying
that he was bound to beat the record made
by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
railroad now that they had come out into
print about it.
He added that when the New York Cen
tral broke the English record they did SO
with their Empire State express, which
any one could have travelled ON who had
the money to pay his fare. This, he
claimed, was the right way of breaking
record If you are going to write about it
afterward.
Nevertheless he was going to follow the
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern fash
ion, 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 record we might perhaps break our
necks.
was to meet him at the London ter1ni-
nus of the London and Glasgow air line
at exactly 10 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 King Edward himself, is that ev
cry man In London must be in his own
house at $40 o'clock and have lights out
and be in bed at 8.
Any one out after that hour is liable to
arrest, SO stole up and down through the
streets and lodged the policemen until I
came to the terminus. Here 1 was amazed
to find an immense locomotive and one flat
car, with two camp stools on it.
"What's this forp' said to Swipes.
"We're going to break the record with
this train," he replied II want to have
1t as light as possible, for any ordinary
carriage meets with such resistance in
passing SO quickly through the atmosphere
If we have smash up it won't be SO ex-
pensive."
"But you don't expect me to sit on one
of those stools in the open air from here to
Glasgows" cried aghast.
'Oh, that's all right, I" 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?'' asked.
"There aren' t any, he answered. "When
you are going to break a record, the fewer
you have on board the better. Watches
differ, and it would be bad if there was a
quarrel about time. Your watch shall be
the only official timepiece in the company.
Mine, as think told you in the letter,
generally loses 2 hours out of the "a, so
l think we had better not trust to it"
70 ptoo nd
Swipes strapped himself to the other, and
at 1915 we pulled out of Marylebone ter
minus. 1t was agreed that we were not to
begin the record until we passed Highgate,
and were thus safely out Of the influence
of London.
The distance from London to Glasgow
is 401.5 miles. We had for engineer Peter
McGump, who was Scotchman, and
therefore knew the road to Glasgow we'll,
and Billy Jones of Whitechapel did the
firing.
We had no brakeman, because, as Swipes
said, it was not on the brakes we were 60
ing 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 sparks in it trails out
behind like great banner.
After leaving Highgate Peter gave her
more steam, and the speed began to be
something appalling.
stOh, it's nothing to what we'll 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 milestones white
ticked of the seconds on my watch, and
before long we were going 20 miles an
hour We had the advantage over the
American road in the fact that there are
rarely any grade crossings in England
and that one railroad Is never allowed to
cross another on the level.
By the time we passed Toad-in-the-Hol
we were doing 85 miles an hour, but as the
Lake Shore train had attained speed of
92.8, Swipes yelled to Peter as well as he
could to give her more speed, because If
she didn't put in her best licks now, what
could we expect when we came to the high
grounds and the stiff grades of the mid
landsp
This shouting Of Swipes, however, had
no effect, because we were going go fast
that his words never reached Peter, who
stood with his hand on the lever, watching
grimly the track in front. As Swipes con-
tinued to shout out the mile posts cried:
"Hold onl It's the telegraph poles you
are counting"
''No, 1t isn't" be replied. "It's tho
mileposts.
Nonsense, cried. tIn that way we
are going at the rate Of 10S miles an hour. "
IA hundred and eight 1t Is, then, he
said. "Stoke her up, Peter"
I then called the general managers at
tention to the fact that 1t was not etiquette
to tell an engine driver to ''stoke up, as
that duty was performed by Billy Jones.
He apparently learned for the first time
that engineers do not do their own stok-
ing, and he thanked me for the informa-
tion.
At last the milestones passed 20 rapidly
that Swipes could not keep track Of them;
30 we abandoned the attempt to count
them and took only the stations, as we
had record Of the distance between them.
saw now by making q calculation be-
tween two stations that We were going at
the rate of 160. AZ an hour, and my hair
would have stood on an end were II not
for the fact that 1t was standing straight
out behind
BY this time the stations passed us In
one continuous streak, a. II W were rum