El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-01-25
AN ELECTRIC HEADLIGHT.
Also a Great Sand Storm That Made the


of a car inspector as T. & P. engine
229 showed up around the curve with
the first electric he adlight to appear
in this part of the country.
"Goshallhen lock! That's what 81 q
am!' was the somewhat ungramaiicai
but fOrcible commentary OF second
yard man.
Then SOM enc made break for the
waiting room, with, Say! come out
q d see the electric headlight" There
was general exodus for the plat
patchers left their instruments for the
moment to stake in the show" The
headlight lighted up the track from
below the White Oaks crossing to the
plaza where engines $50 and 1892 were
in waiting to haul the train west. g
the Limited pulled up into the yards
en- ir g. rroundingsw brialan L.
ligDted aud the light dazzled the eye
too much to look at it long.
station with the big Baldwin ten
wheeler 229, the virgin trip of that en-
CINE to Ell Paso. Here ofore, 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 we're covered with
sand, and the enginemen were covered
from head to foot with sand and oil,
aud fairly exhausted. Master Mechan-
ic 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 real
ly presentable. The little story con-
ne c. ed with all this was that the train
passed tina. day through perhaps the
fiercest sand storm that has swept the
plains within the memory of the oldest
reside inter- from Big Springs to Sic rra
Blanca The storm was at its height
as the Limited passed San MARITIME,
whrre it was 30 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 % be open, as the glass was coat
ed with wet sand, but even then, with
the front end practically invisible, the
runner might as we'll have kept the
window closed and trusto d to provi-
dence to keep out of the ditch.
The hurr cane blew about seventy
miles an hour; the great pillows OF
wind and sand beating against the side
of that train, so that it needed only a
slight increase in force to hurl it from
the rails. Under the circumstances,
Conductor Bacon would have been JUS
titled in casting anchor at the nearest
harhor, aud waiting for the storm to
abnta before proceeding further But
Hadlock said he would stick it through,
and he did, almost blinded with the
whirling, dashing blasts of sand that
came beating into the cab with nearly
glass into translucency. The sand GOV
cred the weari \ surfaces of the run.
ming gear, so that the runner had to
face The hurricane on the runnin Z
boards to keep up constant and very
necessary supply of fabrication, while
the passengers in the coaches watched
the bowling tempest, with more or less
appre hension and fear of possibilities
Nj taking. time in the teeth of this hur
that engine, and then she did no,
steam we'll. so tat the runner, al
round, had his hands full and his wits
in cons ant action to make any progress
at all. The train was heavy one with
seve nty-eieht passengers on board, anC
even after leaving Blanca with the
sand blasts left behind: the wind from
the west was so fierce that it was {
fight all the way up. The G. 81. pas
seng found that out earlier in tn,
| day, for after leaving Sanderson, thu
| uodNy GT6lu vi uo CnIo cS W 1oS'
time as the engine stuck her nose int
the gale, and the station in this cit.
was reached two hours late.
| Th Limited left this station will
seven cars "loe ded to the gunwales,
the coach from New Orleans having
b en- added here, a the total numhe
of passengers was alb Ut ITO, to
'lare est attendance" yet. Two bOur
of tn lost time will be made up err
reaching Yuma, so that San Francisc
can be reached on time. The bi
Baldwin is in the shop today, bavin
her nozzles re-sdjus.ed, and otherwis
overbauled, so that she will be a
right next trip.
1t is b lieved that the sand storr
fully equalled the one that swept owe
this city April 3, 1885.
, The last number of the Texas & Ps
ci6c quar- terly is an Interesting nun
ber. 1t includes write-up of tn
Sunset Limited, q hall tone of tb
train running at so miles an hour 8
the frontspiece, the photo having bee
taken by Herbert Bishop of this cit
with kodak. There is also an exc
lent picture of Engineer Hadloc
, of the Limited, who has had til