The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-02-02

Texas Pacific Train Has a Thrilling
Experience Out of Sierra Blanca


The FL Paso Herald says: "Ain't she
a Lulu2"
This was the exclamation last night
of a car inspector as 7. & P engine 229
showed up around the curve with the
first electric headlight to appear in this
part of the country.
The train halted in front of the s P.
station with the big Baldwin 10-Wheeler
229. the virgin trip of that engine to FL
PasO- Heretofore, having hauled the
heavier trains between Fort Worth and
Texarkana-
The train was four hours late, and
thereby hangs a tale. The great ma
chine and the cars were covered with
sand, and the enginemen were covered
from head to foot with sand and oil,
and fairly exhausted. Master Mechanic
Potter of Big Springs had been on the
engine. and like the others had been
coated from head to foot with sand and
flying dirt, but he went back into the
coaches ere reaching this city and
washed up. so that he looked reasOna-
bly, presentable- The little story con-
nected with all this was that the train
passed that day through perhaps the
fercest sand storm that has swept the
plains within the memory of the old
est residenter from Big Springs to Ser
"a Blanca.
The storm was at its height as the
limited passed San MARITIME where it
was so dark from the dense clouds Of
flying sand that Engineer HadlOck said
he could not see across the cab. The
front window of course had to be open,
as the glass was coated with wet sand,
but even then. with the front end prac-
tically invisible. the runner might as
well have kept the window closed and
trusted to Providence to keep out Of
the ditch.
The hurricane blew about 20 miles an
hour; the great pillows of wind and
sand beating against the side of that
train. 50 that it needed only a slight
increase in force to hurl it from the
rails Under the circumstances. Con-
ductOr Bacon would have been justified
in casting anchor at the nearest har-
Dor and waiting for the storm to abate
before proceeding further But Had
lock said he would stick it through, and
he did. almost blinded with the Whirl-
ing, dashing blasts of sand that came
beating into the cab with nearly
enough force to grind the cab window
glass into translucency- The sand COW
cred the wearing surfaces of the run
ming gear. so that the runner had to
face the hurricane on the running
boards to keep up a constant and very
necessary supply Of fabrication, while
the passengers in the coaches watched
the blowing tempest, the more or less
apprehension and fear of possibilities
Making time in the teeth of this hur-
ricane was an impossibiHty, even with
that big engine. and then she did not
steam we'll so that the runner, all
round. had his hands full and his wits
in constant action to make any prog
ress at all
The train was a heavy one, with IS
passengers on board, and even after
leaving Blanca with the sand blasts les
behind the wind from the west was so
fierce that it was a fight all the way
up The G. H passenger found that
out earlier in the day. for after leaving
SanderSOn the heavy train OF eight cars
began to lose time as the engine stuck
her nose into the gale, and the station
in this city was reached two hours late.