The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-02
THREE TELEGRApH STORIES.

Iimited-An Engineers NerVe-ah Ac-
 cident Where Accidents Were Deemed
 an Impossibility.
 From the Plttsburg Commercial Gazette.l
 Said the telegrapher: Jones was night operator at a town near Altoona, on the Pennsylvania railroad. He had lost a great deal of sleep and was very were few. It was hard to keep awake. Finally the operator in the signal tower next to the west reported No. 4, the eX- press, passing east The track was clear and Jones pulled the white signal and waited for No. 4. He had almost fallen asleep when he was aroused by the roar of the train as No. swept past the white signal. He saw the red lights at the rear of the train as she disappeared around the curve and he reported her to the operator at the sig nal towers east and west. Then he waited to hear that she had passed the tower east. Three or four minutes was all 1t should have taken her to reach that tower, but he waited long after that and no word came to him. He called up Smith, the operator there, and asked him if No. had passed. Smith said No They talked over the wire and concluded that she had broken down or been wrecked between the two towers.
 "At about that time the train dis patcher called up and asked anxiously where No. was. Jones said that she had passed his tower. and Smith was sure she had not passed his. Every body was wide awake now, for the train was certainly lost, and a lost train is a serious thing on railroad. The dis patcher thought that she might have slipped past without Smith seeing her, but the towers along the road beyond declared she had not passed them. A freight going west was stopped at Jones tower and the conductor was asked if he had seen No. between the two towers. He said that there was no sign of her.
 Then the precipitation began to stand out on the operators and dis patchers The track between the two towers lies along the river. A high stone wall supports it. The only possi- ble explanation seemed to be that No. had gone over the wall into the river. She could not have gone up into the air. Nearly an hour had passed. The river seemed the only place where she could be. The freight, conductor re- ceived orders to uncouple his engine and run back slowly. He ran back past two towers, but could see nothing of No. 4 on the track or in the river. There was not even a displaced rail where she could have gone over the wall. Then he was ordered to run slowly west to see how things looked there. About half way between Jones' tower and the one west of him the ex- press was found, with broken cylin- der head She had never passed Jones at all. Jones had dreamed it. although he declares to this day that he was wide awake all the time.
 "Jones was in bad repute for time, but he was not discharged, as he was a good man, and his mistake had not caused wreck. He redeemed himself within a few weeks. By his presence of mind and quick action he saved the limited. That was an unusual case also It was the train dispatcher S mistake, so far as I know, but he may have been misled by some one else's blunder. One day the limited was go- ing east in two sections It is very, very seldom that the limited runs in more than one section. A freight was lying in front of Jones' tower waiting for the limited to pass. The train dis patcher sent out an order saying: No. 2 (the limited) will run forty minutes late That gave plenty of time for the freight to get to the next siding. The message should have read. Second No will run forty minutes late. The first section was on time. Jones hand : ed the order to the conductor of the freight, who went down out of the tow CT and started his train on to the main track.
 Just as the big freight engine began puffing the telegraph instrument began ticking, and Jones read a report saying that the limited had passed the tower above It was just around the curve, not a mile and half away. It was a question of seconds. There was no time to run down the stairs and it was no use to drop the red signal. The en- zine had already passed. There was no time to think. Jones grasped his ink bottle and his red flag. He ran out on the balcony in front of the tower and threw the ink bottle at the engine, Then he waved the red flag and yelled with all his might. The bottle struck the cab and attracted the engineer s attention. He looked up and saw Jones waving the red flag and yelling like madman. Just at the same mo- ment they both heard the shrill scream of the lirnited's whistle as she ap- preached the curve.
 "The engineer did not stop to ques- ton what it was. The engine was clear out on the main track, He re- versed his engine and sent her btimp- ing back against the heavy train. The forward motion was stopped, but the train was so heavy that it would not start back. About half the engine was still on the main track. The limited swung around the curve not half mile away, coming at the rate of forty miles an hour The engineer of the freight showed wonderful coolness. He ran his engine forward several feet, so as to separate the first few cars as far as the drawheads would allow, and give him chance to get some momentum in his engine going back, and thus start the train. The plan is known to all en- gineers, but to deliberately start for ward with the limited in sight took