The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-14
TOLD BY THE BRAKEMAN
HEAD-END FREIGHT COLLISION,
AND HOW 1T HAPPENED.
An Exciting Incident i'm Railroad Life
Related by an Man Who Follows
a Perilous Vocation.


of thirty loads in that rain of last night
snap. L can tell you that. His old
giblets that has the weather gauge around
there was telling me this morning that
there was over seven and half inches of
water fell, and he didn't need TO take oath
to it to make me believe it either. Say, we
left Cincy with the first 9ls yesterday
morning on time. and we didn't get away
from Lawrenceburg until they began shoot
in slow orders into us on account of their
fears of the rain that was then falling. but
say, that wasn't a circumstance to what
followed during the night. We didn't get
to the top of the hill until o'clock. and
before We got away from Milan it was pitch
dark. and we had orders to meet two, eight
and eighteen-all late, and everybody look
ing out for washouts. The rain came down
in bucketfuls, and you couldn't see
switch lamp ten carlengtns away. Say,
never saw anything like il, and it never
let up a minute-just steady downpour
without a break. Every cut was river
of water, and every fill a dyke. 1t was
midnight before We swung around the
curve at North Vernon, and when we went
over old Muscatatuck she was raging
torrent and hankfull. We slowed down and
pulled over the Big Four crossing, and
dropped off the engine and went into the
telegraph office with the con. Say, 1 wish
you could have seen that operator-he was
sweating two or three different kinds of
blood and didn't have a thing to do but
ceive orders for-well, there was us on 9ls,
and two behind us. then 97's for the branch,
sos and 54's, and u light engine going back
to Osgood for 3, whose engine died on Col
lum's hill. The con. handed in his report,
and says to the operator What you got for
us jimmy And what do you think that
kid did He kind of started up and picking
up clip full of orders he run through them
and says, Nothing for you Mike except
to run slow to Seymour Sure, says
Mike, Sure says he; Then were of,
says Nike and handing me the duplicate,
we left the office and 1 started on a run
for the engine.
BILL COLES PECULIARITIES.
bill Cole was pulling us with the 2OS,
and when climbed up on the gangway and
handed him the orders the old man was sit
tin up on the seat, cussin' because he was
out of sand and because it was rainin so
hard he had to keep the cab windows shut.
You know Bill has to have splitting room,
and if the windows are shut he spits on
them; he splits in front of him every time.
facin' He read the order. pulled that dirty
old cap of his around on one ear, reversed
his engine to get the slack and started her
UP the hill like an old horse. Say, he
picked up them thirty loads and walked
up the hill without a bobble, not a single
slip, in spite of havin no sand. He's the
best engineer on the old O. & NJ, I'll tell
| you that and we pitched over into West
| Vernon i'm fine shape, and / knew Bill was
dead anxious to let her out and go in home
| with a pay-car movement, but the orders
| said SLOW and had to follow them.
| We felt our way down to Hayden, the rain
| still pouring down and the branches and
| streams bursting their banks. Every Gull
vert had a track walker standing out
| swingin' his white lamp for us to come
| ahead, but kept on holdin' her down
| to about six miles, and with home and
| warm beds only eight miles away, this was
hard to do, tell you. i could hear old Bill
cussin' and fumin' under his breath as he
| peered out Of the tobacco-stained window
At the sides of the track the water rushed
| in rivers, and the cab was filled with mist
that the rain dashed in at the windows and
| ventilators. We swung along down Whit
combs and finally on to the race track
| where many a time / have seen Bill pull
! a full train forty miles an hour, and from
| where, ordinarily, you can see the electric
| lights in the Seymour yard four miles
| away. Well, you couldn't see a thing last
| night.
| TIME TO JUMP.
| II had just handed Bill match to light
| a cigar, and had stepped out onto the foot
| board 20 let the fireman put in fire, when
| L heard a roar from the old man that
| caused me to look up. He had just struck
the match and was holding it up to his
face, but as i turned he quickly and with
one move of his left hand shut off the
throttle and put on the emergency brake,
| and as he did so sung out, 'i2s Jump,
| boys" Well, ii didn't take minute for me
and the fireman to tumble, and you ought
| to have seen us take the bird line Say
| we struck into water UP to our knees but
we didn't stop for that, and the way we
| pulled ourselves up the side of that cut was
| no joke, and We reached the barbed wire
fence at the top just in time TO turn and
| see them hit. Say, it awful. The tank
of the 203 just climbed right up into the
| cab, and | fancied | could see Old Cole
| fattened out against the boiler head and
the 1l6. that was pullin' 42s, was Just
| stripped cleail-there wasn't a pie OF
work left on her; her extension was fiat
tened up like a matchbox; her headlight.
| stack. bell and whistle dome were cut
| right off by the force of the cab and ten
der that was shot up on her boiler by the
| shock. Say, them fellows wasn't going less
| than twenty miles an hour when they hit
us. and If they hadn't had that little Bald
win a-pullin them they wouldn't have done
| "A thing TO us. Me and the fireman rushed
| down the bank to see what we could do for
! Cole. and / sung out to him with "A shudder
for didn't expect answer and what do
you think-he shoves his dirty face out of
| the flreman's window and says Saw
| Shorty, give me another match; this d-n
| thing went outr Soon as / saw he was ali
right | started back to tell the conductor
what had happened. but he didn't need any
telling. Soon as he felt us hit he knew
there was two engines in the mess, and he
began fishing for his time card to see if VIC
had lost our rights by being twelve hours
| overdue, you know But we still had a
couple of hours to go. and the whole fault
was with that kid operator up there al
Vernon. He had the order there for US "a
meet f2's at Frazier's all right, but I'm taking
so many and in the roar of the storm he
got ratified and let US go without them.
DEAD TRAMP
We'll. freight cars were piled IN there
Some. you bet. | hadn't gone back more
than four lengths TO where a little r. A.
O. was damned clean up into big system
box. when l saw tramp climbing on,
I,..tr 4la