The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-24


mere was no flag out, the tall lights be-
Hls IN plain sight from the yard and he
commenced 60 criticise my solution of
tne recent difficulty, saying 1 should have
pached the whole train down into the
Sard, and demanded the service of a
pusher. There may be a time for an
thngs, but that didn't seem to me to be
the time to listen to switch-shanty rail-
iodulhS, SO shut him and drove him back
10 ms dog house. By the time they got
the draw-head back into its place in the
car ana we got away from the siding we
| nau Deeh four hours coming a little over
four miles, magnificent beginning. truly.
our turkey'l be cold, Alec" Harry re-
again.
'Froze," 1 replied, slowly.
couldn't get them going over twelve
nllies an hour, and from that we ran
| down to about the speed of a slow walk
She didn't steam very freely, which was
70 pc expected. The weather would have
| chilled boiler jacketed with a foot of
asbestos She kept calling for more water.
SO 1 was not surprised. when. while oiIiug.
discovered her fiues 90 be leaking badly
After that 1 never passed a water plug.
and the plump vision of my Christmas
turkey faded in inverse geometrical ratio
to my progress
Daylight showed us a white Christmas
| with vengeance The storm was stiu
raging with undiminished fury, the sand
axe snow continuing it's endless horizontal
drive.
Seventeen would be due in half an hour.
There wasn't time to get to the next sid
Ing ahead of her. but there was a cross
over switch mile ahead, where decided
to back over, and let her pass My flag
the head brakeman-had gone back TO the
caboose; trip over the top of that train
| that l would not have taken for a con-
] trolling interest in ba
ed whistling for the switch as soon as
| got to 1t. Ten minutes after II was due
Davis emerged from the whirllng snow.
seeking information. His faculties seem
ed to have become benumbed: had to go
into all the details before he could un-
derstand that / wanted to carry the
brakeman out ahead to protect us when
| crossed over.
| carried the man out half a mile, gave
him bucket of fire and told him to burn
| fence rails or anything he could get hold
of TO keep himself warm, but under no
| circumstances desert his post until called
| in
After a lot more whistling, tuning and
fussing, got the train backed over, we
| closed the cab tight, and at our lunches.
| While gna wing at the kiln-dried boarding
| house sandwiches and laughing at Har-
rvs nonsense about white or dark meat"
| II came putting along, almost nolselessly,
| bergs.
I had lost nearly a gauge of water
| through the leaky 1ues while laying there.
| A broomstick inspection showed less than
six Inches in the tank, and the nearest
| water plug was five miles away Again
worked the whistle cord. After awhile
Davis came ahead He was muffied up in
all the old rags the caboose lockers could
furnish, and was a perambulating noun
tain of snow and ice. He was mad, al
last; as mad as I had been all night
Gosh almighiyr he reared, so loud that
l heard him above the noise of the gale;
couldn't the fireman get down an open
the switch 'thout calm a man all the
way up from the hind end? Mebbe you
think it's fun to waller round in this
snow"
told him to cut the engine off and hold
everything on the eastbound track till 1
| got back from Selden water plug. As we
pulled over the switch Harry shouted:
Hey, Davis"
Davis looked up squirting comical1y
into the teeth of the storm. Harry threw
him kiss and yelled: Turkey"
The conductors reply was inaudlble, but
we know what it was-the most common
expression in railroad use.
When we got back from the water plug.
q Che maiD was waiting. We followed her
getting good wheeling until she got so far
ahead that the snow dTifted in behind her
again. We loaded the lender at Bolton
coal platform, piling big Jumps that
couldn't blow away on top. My watch
| Dropped out of my pocket on to the show
| ell. threw 1t into the tender, and Harry
tossed a heavy lump on top of it. After we
had found it and stepped back on the en-
CINE. he asked, looking at the clock:
rs that all lis 10:15?"
locked at my watch: 11:37. We had left
the curtain up. while coaling, and the en-
g. ~.
boiler, had frozen up and STOPPED.
During the next hour we near.y stalled
in big drifts twice. This set me to think
ing about train 10; she must be nearly due.
l looked at my watch, 1871. IL hadn
turned a wheel since that lump of coal hit
it, and now 1 had no time on The engine.
Seeing me looking at my watch, Harry
asked me if it was broken. I told him it
was: That's nothing" said he, SOS the
record" / tried TO grin, but just then she
pumped into a cut, at the foot of a slight
grade, that was filed 20 feet deep with
The beautiful. / had no longer any need
to worry about following trans. was
anchored good and solid. had a fun tank
of coal; we wouldn't freeze, and there was
water enough for long siege-only for
those leaky fues.
Engineers when snowbound must
keep their engines alive that trains may
proceed imme diatey the road is opened,
otherwise expensive delays Will. occur from
thawing out watering and firing up
dead engines In most inconyenient
places. My great problem was.
how 10 get water into the boiler The
| pumps worked only when The engines ran.
/ gave her steam, II the wheels would slip
on the rails and turn. l could pump that
way She might have been a solid, joint
less casting, for all the effect the steam
| had on her.
Something had to be done and quickly,
! for the water was leaking out Of her every
| minute, and had only two gauges in her
when stopped. We got the spare scoop
shovel and sunk a shaft through the snow
| on the lee side of her Then we cleared
the snow away from under her ana all
| about the wheels and machinery. It had
| drffted a natural arch over her by this
| time. so that II was quite warm down
there. Harry brought down the ham,
mer. some wrenches and the torch and re-
ported barely one gauge OF water in the
| boiler. II was time. indeed, to hurry.
II was an awkward place to work, and
/ tho sunoLxas from the torch nearly DESTROYED