The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-12
RAILROAD EXPERIENCES
WHY 1T IS THAT TRAINMEN HAVE
AN ABIDING BELIEF IN LUCK.
Terrible Accidents That Have Been
ter to BE Lucky than Rich.
St. Louis Globe-pemocrat.

| they will obviously shake their heads and
contend that it was a case Of luck, good
or bad, pure and simple.
For instance, if one of their number had
been ordered out on a certain train and
through Sickness had failed to report and
the man taking his place had been killed,
they will, one and all, emphatically declare
it was a case of lucky sickness for the man
that was compelled to remain at home.
They fail to see the fact that the substitute
proved negligent in his duty and had the
regular man been in his place it was one
hundred to one chance that the accident
would not have occurred.
1t is, however, an undeniable fact that
there are more strange and weird occur
rences taking place daily in the railroad
service than in any other branch of en-
ployment. The ponderous rolling stock, the
swift flight through the country over
spider-like bridges, under the earth through
long, dismal tunnels, and in weather vary
ing from the pleasant to the most trying,
all tend in the direction of beliefs almost
| supernatural. Then, again. train service is
not the kind that calls so much for brain
as physical equipment. The element of
| chance does, to q certain extent, enter into
| the everyday service of trainmen, and
| that they should be superstitious is only
| following natural lines.
| 1t is occurrences like the following, the
| details of which recently came from Ha-
zleton, Pa, that lend a color Of substance
to trainman's belief in luck. When COM
| ing into the yard at Weatherly a small
station near Hazleton, with his train, con-
ductor John McHugh told one of his brake
men to cut the caboose loose at the lower
end of the siding and let the engine take
the train to a point near the western end
McHugh had then been on the road con-
stantly for twenty hours, and his eyes were
heavy for lack of sleep.
AS ordered, the brakeman a few minutes
later pulled the pin holding the caboose,
and supposing that the conductor would
take care of the car continued up the track
with the remainder of the train The brake
man noticed later, however, that the ca
boose had run out on to the main line again,
ard that McHugh had not appeared on the
platform. The road at that point is marked
by grade which drops fifty feet to the
mile, and to catch the caboose was impos-
sible.
Taking the situation in at glance, the
trainman FASTENED to the telegraph Office,
and messages were sent to the different
| stations below to either sidetrack or derail
| the runaway caboOSe. 1t was not known
| The operator at Black Creek reported the
| car by his station, and the man at Penn
| Haven was barely notified when the run
! away shot by the window of his office.
Down the mountain side the car rushed
| with the rapidity of lightning while within
it sat conductor McHugh fast asleep, and
/ obliYiQuSa to the danger his nap was incur
1 ring. Fortunately, there were no west
/ bound trains started out of Packington, and
/ the immense distance allowed time for the
/ operator to set the switches and run the
| car up the safety track. Other trainmen
were disturbed along the graded track, and
| as the speed OF the runaway caboose de-
creased as it climbed the hillside, one of
/ them was enabled to board it and apply the
brake before it reached the obstruction at
| the end.
When the car was brought to a stand
/ still, McHugh was found on the bench in
! When aroused and told of the perilous ride
| he had had, he refused to believe it, and
only after looking in vain for his train did
he come to a sense of the situation. There
were hundred and one chances for that
to either jump the track or crash into
another train and kill the sleeping Nc
! Hugh, but he can certainly be claSSed with
! the ones born under lucky star.
AN ENGINEERS LUCK
| A representative of the Globe-Demo-
crat happened in at the headquarters of
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Washing
ton city during the past week and came
across half a dozen engineers and conduc-
tors Of that road discussing the question of
luck in connection with their employment
The debate warm, and many of the
stories told were given as Illustrations to
substantiate assertions that it is better to
be born lucky than rich. An old engineer,
rugged out in his street buds, as he called
them, was telling how Slight the barrier be-
tween life and death may sometimes be,
and how his lucky star permitted him to
relate the following story He said
L was running at a good rate of Speed
one day, when, as l approached a part of
the road about two miles east of Pniladel-
pnia on the then newly built Baltimore q
ONO road, where there was rather q sharp
| curve and where the roadbed was raised
about forty feet above the turnpike level,
the front wheel on the outward side under
! the forward truck of my engine without
the slightest warning fell off the shaft and
| rolled down the embankment. Instantly all
the wheels under the whole train-engine
! tender, baggage car and several passenger
coaches-were humping along over the ties.
| The humping and jolting was so violent
that no one could steady himself prepara-
! tory to leaping from the cars; all the pas
sengerS could do to hold on for dear
life and pray. After this frightful ride had
been continued for about three numbered
| feet, we were running fully fifty miles an
hour, the reversed engine brought the cars
to standstill, nobody the worse except for
the fright and the jolting.
What do you think saved us?" asked the
| engineer, casting an inquiring glance
around the group Of listeners. all of whom
shook their heads negatively. Merely
! little One-lncn iron DOlL nut under the plot.
The nut was brought, when the engine left
the rails, against the inner side of the out
ward rail- and acting as a sort of flange,
served to keep the course of the engine and
the cars that followed forward instead of
outward. 1t was all a combination of things
not TO be met with once in ten million
times I"
"Oh, that experience is nothing to Tom
| l<elley'S, the boss Of section II, out near
| Laurel chimed in fne-looking, middle
aged man, whose years of experience on the
railroad as q conductor count up in the
| twenties TON walking on the east
| bound track one day last spring, so as to
/ face trains approaching him from that di-
/ rection, when a wildcat engine running
/ him down. When Tom fell, one leg was
thrown across the south rail. while the rest
| of his body fell between the rails.
I'm that position he was pushed by the
| moving engine a distance Of about two
| hundred feet before he was seen by
| brakeman on a train going in the opposite
| direction on the other track. The brake
| man yelled to the engineer that they had
| run over man. and the engine was quick
| ly stopped Kelley then got out from under
| the engine and walked home. His only in
! iures were bruises about the arms and
| hands. He was only in the house few
| days.
Tom told me that the first punch he got
| knocked the breath out of him, so that he
couldn't yell to the engineer, but he kept
| his senses, and chung 10 one of the aXles
| like a drowning man 10 plank He said
| that the snow and ice on the track alone
saved his life as had his clothing caught
but for a second he would have been
| crushed to pieces.
! A WOULD-BE SUICIDE.
''I have only run against one lucky man