Stikeen River journal., 1899-03-25
THE ENGINEERS STORY.
By ALLEN O WRANGEI..

les, l nave had queer eXpcfl- cnces, and some of them were not us Imaginable as they might be. Of course there are times in an engineers life when the monotony is broken by incl dents so ridiculous that Il man would be utterly lacking in all sense of hum"r if they did not alnuse him. Again, there are incidents so pathetic that even the most hardened are touched.
 While l was running out of Los An- gcles a few years ago, had an cXperi ence that was Imaginable afterwards; the joke came in. I was on the "eXtra board' at the time. and when went to the round house that evening. in re- sponse to the call-hoys summons, found that l was to go to Redondo Beach on 'bcan special or in other words with train of empty cars to be loaded, from the steamer, with lima beans large consignments of which were being shipped East over our road, the Santa Fe), and then hauled back to Los Angeles that night. Well, I back ed my engine (Old Peggy, No. 652) down to the train and we pulled out on time. It was beautiful evening and really enjoyed the run down, which was made without incident
 Arriving at Redondo We turned the engine around, and, as the steamer had not arrived. we left her standing on the main line long enough for us to get something to eat. Upon returning to the engine some thirty minutes later. l fixed myself as comfortably as pos sible and settled down for d little sleep. having been up most of the night before and all of that day. 1 do not know how long had been sleeping when l was awakened by the shrill whistle of q locomotive. 1 was reclining in such d position that upon opening my eyes l could see right up the track. and what
 saw made my blood turn cold. About d quarter of mile above where the engine was standing there is a curve in adecp cut with d decided down grade in the direction of the locality in which We We're standing. and coming out of that cut was the headlight of d locomo- tive.
 As quick as d flash l graspcd my whistle lever and gave one short, sharp blast and then swung myself out of that cab window in short order. The line is built on an embankment at this point and down this rolled, making no cf- fort to stop my downward passage. as sure you. When I reached the foot of the embankmcnt l continued to roll in a frantic endcavor to get as far away from that track as possible before the crash came. But it never came. As the moments passed without the ex- peeted smash-up. I decided to nvesti- gate. Well--the steamer was just gliding to the dock and a man with d lantern was nearing me. walking along the track from the direction of the cut. 1 nursed bruised shins and parked elbows for several days, to say nothing of what it cost me to keep that tram crew from giving it away in town.
 But things were not so Imaginable in the vicinity of Sacramento during the winter of lSs9-9O You no doubt re- member that almost the entire rail system of California was tied up by the floods. Before the general tie-up on the runs out of Sacramento. we would skip along for miles without seeing a rail. Of course this was taking chances, for We did not know at what moment we would strike place in which the track was undermined. but we did know that when We should strike such place it would be the end of the run for that trip-and perhaps forever for us. And some of the boys found the end of their run of life at just such sinks that winter.
 One day the Master Mechanic sent for me, and upon arriving at his office the following conversation took place
 Il have sent for you to ask you to make an important but dangerous run. Do you think you have the nerve to undertake it"
 What is it:?''
 "A fast run to Oak land over the straight run.' The wires are down and we don't know the condition of the
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