The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1899-08-01
STRUGGLE ON
AN ENGINE.
How an Engineer on His Back,
Locked With an Enemy. stopped
the Train.
.NNNNN\N

-
Locked With an Enemy. Stopped
the Train. Il
Over in the lounging room for the
trainmen at the terminus of one of the
trunk lines in Jersey City several train
men were exchanging stories of hair
breadth escapes, fastrides and instances
Of presence of mind, while waiting to
be summoned to their duties. Finally
it came the turn Of a small, gray
haired, keen eyed man.
'Well, yes" he said, taking a chew
of his neighbours tobacco. Il had one
excitin trip. 1t was long back in 'S8,
before the comm of these double
cabbed Mother Hubbard enjines on
which, if you want to speak to the fire.
man, you have to stop at a telegraph
station n send him a message or else
slap the air over in the Emergency
notch n bring him up to you whether
he wants to come or not. Never did
like these pesky double deckers. was
doing stunts on the Cora good old
mogawl she were, too. Just out the
shop, where she'd been overhauled n
had the airbrakes put on her.
Il left the other end Of the division
on trip right after pay day n my reg
ular fireman had reported ill., I'd seen
him the night before n he looked
rather weak N tired, n l thought he'd
been taken i'll. They used to have a
great trick dom that after they's got
of Conroy in his place, n we hadn't
got along very far fore came to the
conclusion that he was a mite under
the weather, too n he couldn't make
the old GOT steam nohow. The outcome
of it was that we laid down several
times on the trip n barely caught
the steamer with our export freight.
Old Nuthead, the enjine dispatcher, he
made me walk the carpet n said If
didn't do better'n that he'd drop me
back on coal again. hadn't been run
min fast freight very long n left him
feelin rather testy, but l didn't say
anything bout Conroy, as l thought
that durin our lay over in this end he'd
kinder pound his ear n sleep off the
booze n be all right goin back.
"We caught train 70 for the return
trip with about 10 cars perishable stuff
for Chicago which were rugged up
with the air, which was a purity good
string of airbrake cars for those days,
N about 15 scabs, without air. | was
thinkin what stop you could make on
short notice with them, n how you
could turn things over in the caboose.
Old Joe Hoffman was our conductor,
n he was an awful man to swear n
cut up high jinks if everything didn't
come his way.
eve hadn't moved out very far along
the meaders when | saw as how I'd
have to do some tall figurin to git that
train in on time. Soon's we'd git to a
little grade I'd drop her down a notch
or two, n she'd kick up her heels n
lay right down for want Of wind. Con-
roy, instead of sleepin while he was of
duty. had gone out n put on some fin
ishin touches n made it worse.
You can just guess ! was mad clean
through, n thought to myself as how
would get Mr.. Conroy about 80 days
in which to rest n p'raps end his little
railroadin career soon's we got home
again. When we got to the first wa
term tank, about 40 miles out, we had
used up jest . hours n 10 minutes.
The regular runnln time was only /
hour n 45 minutes, SO you see we'd
lost 30 minutes on 40 miles almost lev.
ell n with light train. The outlook
was that we'd never make the heavier
grades on the western end unless Con-
roy took brace. While | was oilin
around Hoffman came runnin up cuss-
in like one mad n says:
'Blankety blank blank, you, what
the blanks matter wider? | wanter
git home in time for church Sunday.
Here's a message from Jersey which
says as how if yer don't hurry up
they'll take yer off here at the mex
plug n give us respectable man
"As this was only about midnight
Tuesday night his speech got my dan
der up, n | told him as how he n Jer-
sey could both go where asbestus cloth
in is a boon n the broilin sun never
sets. But climbed up on the tank, n
maybe didn't give that fireman a
settin out.
"'You long, lanky blunderbuss,'
says, for he was a big codger, much
bigger'n meself, If you don't take a
purity sudden brace n keep the wind
up on this mogawl till we get in you
might as well sit right down here n
send your regrets to the super, cause
I'll report you soon's we git in, or my
Rame amt John Stafford
'He give me a kinder reproachful
look n commenced fxin his fire. AS
turned to put my oil can in the box l
Bpied bottle of whisky. grabbed
that bottle N turned roun to Conroy.
'Ahar says, so this is the cause of
our gaspin for breath every five min
utes, is it? Well. here she goes n l
plugged that bottle over on the track
n broke 1t into 90 pieces, not without
some regrets. as it had a pretty good
smell, n I'm not dead set against the
stuff myself. but let her go.
Eve got started again n walked
lway up the hill from the tank as easy
as Willie Bryan makes a nice, long
speech, n l noticed an improvement
In the steam gauge right away, n |
commenced to let 'er out at once to
make up for lost time. 1t was purity
good, even goin then for about 20 mile,
then up an incline of about mile n
down the mountainside II mile. When
we struck the top of that II mile hill
kept her wide open for about half
mile to give us good start down the
hill n then shut her off n let 'em
buzz.
1.-THE old COZ was a stem winder, with
boiler runnin right through the cab
to the back, dividin the fireman and
engineers side The airbrake valve
was placed right on top the boiler, to-
ward the back end of the cab, SOS you
could reach it nice n handy while sit
tin in the seat. I'd no more n shut her
off when shadder fell over my Shout
der, n turned quick, n Conroy sprung
on me.
"'You dirty blackguardp he scream
ed III teach yer to chuck my booze
overheard. Report me, is it? You
dirty rag! shure n you'll never live to
see the super ag'in.'
"As he leapt on me it took me back
so that before I could do anything be
grabbed me by the shoulder, N fell
backward alongside the boiler, my
head on the front doorsill of the cab
my back on the floor n Conroy on TOP
Of me- Although was partly stunned
by the fall. | had mind enough left tc
get my arms around him n hug him
close to me.
"All this time the train had beer