The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-10-11
DUPED THE ENGINEER
THE FLAoMAN WORKED HIM WITH
A DISAPPEARING TAIL END.

A DISAPPEARING TAIL END.
A Trick That Paid Back an Old
Grudse, Won a Bet and at the Same
convenient Habit.
Funny things happen now and then
on a railroad" said the old engineer REM
iniscently, things that don't come to the
notice of the heads or get into the news
papers either, and that makes me recall
a little incident that occurred several
years ago on the Q. and M.
"There was an old fellow named Tom
McHallock, commonly known as Head
light Tom.' pulling one of the passenger
runs at that time, who had the reputa-
ton of never stopping to pick up flag.
Now, you know when man goes out to
protect the rear end of his train he car
ries supply Of torpedoes besides his flag
or lanterns He puts one Of the torpe-
does on the rail about quarter of mile
behind the caboose. and several hundred
yards farther back he places two more,
these last two about so feet apart. Then
he returns and takes up his post by the
first one. When his train gets into the
siding, or ready to pull out, as the case
may be, the flagman is called in by whis-
tie signals from the engine. Well, II no
train is csming behind when this signal
Is given the fagman takes off the one tor
pedo and comes in. He leaves the other
two because they are only intended as a
sort of warning. They mean, Get your
train under control So when the engi-
neer of the following train strikes them
and doesn't hear the third one or gets a
stop signal he knows that the train ahead
ISIS ely out Of the way.
''But the first train often pulls out in
such q hurry that the fagman gets left.
Then, unless the following train will slow
and pick him up, he has to walk in to the
station, and this may be some little water
tank, where he'll have to wait hours be-
fore anything stops to take him on.
swell, as I've said, Headlight Tom
would never stop for flag. He was
pulling Two and Seven and very proud Of
always arriving on time, though Of course
the little he'd lose in slowing to pick up
flag or two wouldn't have amounted to
anything. He was unpopular on this ac-
count. but nobody ever took any steps to-
ward getting even with him until Andy
Mullins came on the road.
Mullins was man off the Katy, one
of these big, rawboned westerners,
good deal of a boaster and bad man in
fight. He hadn't been on the road two
months before Headlight Tom ran by
him one night In a bowling rainstorm,
and Mullins tumbled into a cattle pass
and had all kinds of mishaps walking in.
Hc swore he'd get even with old Tom for
that and bet a box Of cigars that Tom
would not only stop for him next time,
but ask him to ride.
"The hagman, you know, always has
charge of the lamps in the caboose. Well,
the boys on Mullins crew used to notice
a lot Of old rusty lantern frames in the
oilroom after this and wonder how they
got there. Never mind says Mullins;
1--WE may need them some day; who
,knows?'
'"They had been making test Of new
compound engine on the division. Shed
been up there nearly week, and the ex-
perts had got all the figures they wanted,
and it was finally arranged to send her
back east on 2. OF course old Head
light Tom was happy as boy with
record with that engine that would sur
prise the folks that designed her. Null
Inns got wind of this, for he'd just come
in that morning, and instead Of taking his
layover he got them to send him right
out again in place of sick man. He
went on an extra several hours before 2's
leaving time and took with him a big,
awkward looking bundle from his own
caboose
+ "Things must have gone just about as
he wanted them to. for about half way
down the division they had to make
quick run between stations ahead of 2,
and Mullins, going out to protect them,
got left of course. He took the big bun
die with him too.
# 1.-THE rest Of it was told me by Head
light TOMS fireman. 1t seems that they
had been making record breaking time
all the way over the division with the
new machine, and old Tom had her wide
open. They were sailing down Bow
Evansville hill under full steam to get a
swing over the upgrade beyond the sta
ton, when all of sudden, as they round
ed the curve, they struck two torpedoes,
and the next minute tail end doomed up
down the tangent.
q" Headlight Tom shut of, reversed,
jaLlmed on the emergency air and pulled
cut the sand lever, and the fireman got in
the gangway ready to jump. But he wait
ed q minute to calculate whether they'd |
hit the other train, and, 10 and behold, |
the tail end was gone. They'd pretty |
nearly stopped by that time. Old Tom
was weak as n cat and said they'd just
crawl along slowly and see what it |!
meant, so they did for Il little pisre, and !
pretty soon they came up to s4glagman
standing with his red and WxEe lights
beside the track. The felEM didn't
make any move toward getting aboard, |
though, and Headlight Tom hollered to
him and told him to get on.
"'Where's your tramp says Tom.
"'Gone 20 minutes answers Mullins.
"'But saw a tail end out here says
Headlight Tom and then Mullins laugh
ed.
1.-THE way he'd worked it was simple
enough. He brought along three old red
lights besides his own red light and white
light. Well, he tied red flag over his
white lamp and that gave him five reds.
He set two Of them on the ground few
feet apart, held two more in his hands
with his arms stretched out at his sides
and had the other on his head. Then he
looked like the tail end of train for fair.
when he heard old Tom put on the
air, he knew he'd be looking across the
cab to speak to the fireman, and he threw
the old lamps into the ditch and stepped
to one side Mullins won the cigars, and
old Toms record was spoiled, but never
heard of his running by flag since."-
New York Sun.