Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1897-10-22
, Capturing a Runaway Train .
ny A. ". STRONG.

There have lately been turned out
OF the Southern Pacific railroad shops
mt one Of the big terminals OF that
road on the Pacific Coast four of the
largest consolidated pattern engines
in use, designed especially for noun.
tain work, whose plans and specifca-
tons were drawn by probably the only
lady expert mechanical engineer in
America, IL rot in the world How
she attained her present position is
one of the railroad legends of the
road for which she works, but believe
the story has never been in print.
A number of years ago, about fifteen
believe, some lucky prospectors
located" mining claims away up in
the almost inaccessible fortressess of
one of the mountain ranges of the
West, and the phenomenal riches OF
the lead amply repaid the heavy ex.
penses of the "mule train" that was
used TO 'pack" the output of the rail
road. Eventually the prosperity OF
the first proprietors brought other adj
venturous spirits to the lucky spot and
later rich syndicate brought out al
the smaller claims on the ledge and
established there the great mills and
smeters of the Calumet Mining ald
Smelling company,
Then the Southern Pacific people
awakened to the importance Of the
enterprise, and after u series Of con-
situations with the syndicate, in the
course Of which very handsome
financial proposition was made by the
miners, branch road was surveyed
up through the canons to the site of
the now rapidly growing town. The
difficulties were almost insurmount-
able, but Mt last the work was done
and o very crooked and dangerous
piece of track was the result. Its
grades were -precipitoRs in the extreme
2 its curves sharp TO the last degree, and
its road bed 10 narrow ia some places
that II a chr became derailed it was
either demolished against the rock
wall on one side or went to the bottom
of the gorge on the other, there to lie
and rot and rust away. Once over the
cliff the cost of raising an ore car
would almost ray for q new one, and
the company seldom made any effort
TO recover the wrcckagH.
One point on tho short road had
always been dreaded by ths trainmen,
and this was the sharp curve at the
approach TO what was called the second
crossing. II had been a prolific source
of wrecks and the rocks below the
bridge were strewn with broken tim
bers aud bent and twisted ironwork of
dozens of ore cars that had plunged
over the sheer sides Of the deep gorge.
This second crossing bridge was at the
foot Of the heaviest grade aud from
there the road wound through the
beautiful Silver Creek valley to the
Junction" where it joined the main
line OF the Southern Pacific.
At the point where the level track
commenced, hardly stones throw
from the second crossing bridge, the
company had built short siding for
the use of the giant consolidated
engine that was used to push the long
trains of ore cars mp the mountain,
and just across the main track from
the siding stood the little cottage
where John Clarke, the engineer, and
his daughter, Jessie, lived.
Miss Jessie ut that time was nearly
sixteen, and for the last three years
had been her fathers housekeeper
All her life she had been intimately
associated with railroad men, and for
three years that her father had been
running the big ''pusher' she ha a no
other companion than her little
brother, several years her junior
All her spare time she spent with
father about the eagine, and had made
it an enthusiastic study until, at six
teen, she knew its mechanism about
rs thoroughly Us did her grayhaired
father in fact, it was her boast that
she could run the consolidator as
good as daddy"
A short time before tho incident
happened Of which am about to tell
you, tourist delayed by a wreck ut
the bridge had spent the day at Clarke's
cottage. The little housekeeper had
made the day very pleasant for him by
plotting him about the valley, and on
leaving he had given her pair OF
powerful fieldglasses.
They were her dearest earthly pos.
session, for with them she could see
her fathers engine as il swept down
the mountain for nearly an hour before
he would arrive at the siding.
The long stretches of road as &
wound around the crags up the canon.
now for mile in sight, then disappear