Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-07-01
SOME CLOSE CALLS.
INSTANCES OF NARROW ESCAPES
TOLD BY RAILWAY MEN.

Sleeping Car Passenger on a Rough
Road-Trains That Left the Track and
Returned Running at Full Speed
There is no question that well au-
thenticated cases are On record where
disastrous wrecks of railroad trains
have been averted by almost seeming
miracles James E. White, general SUI
perintendent of the railway mail service
at Washington, relates the particulars
of a remarkable jump of % feet made
by a locomotive. AS Mr.. White tells
the story, it was on the 1st of Septem-
Der, 1892, when New York and Chi
cago mail train on. the New York Cen
trail, which was behind time and run
ming at very high rate of speed,
reached New Hamburg, where % foot
draw of bridge was open, which open
space it is claimed the engine cleared
and landed safely on the main portion
of the bridge, the rest of the train GO
ing down through the opening While
the engine, it is said, made the leap of
% feet in safety, the engineer and fire.
men, not having time to jump were
both killed. John II. Cain, postal
clerk, was killed, and NJ. Z. Towney,
the other postal clerks escaping unhurt.
While none of the local railroad men
knows of any locomotives that are as
good jumpers as Whites or that do the
bounding Jockey act, some of them
know of miraculous and hairbreadth es-
capes. Carlton Paris of the old Ohio and
Mississippi for many years and more
recently with the B. and 0. S. ". tells
L., l., L 4 80
ago We're riding on a train over the
Ohio and Big Sandy road when an ac-
cident was narrowly averted. But LEI
Paris tell the story:
1.-The road was about the toughest at
that time had ever ridden over. There
were only few passengers ON the train.
Swift and | were in the forward coach
talking to the conductor when the soli-
tary sleeping car passenger came stag
gering in and said: Mr.. Conductor,
your road is so rough can't sleep III
my berth. 1 have been pitched out of
my berth twice in the last quarter of
an hour There must. be something the
matter.
1.-The conductor picked up his lantern
and said, Como on, and I'll go back
with you and see what's wrong Swift
and l sat where we were talking, and
very soon we saw that the bellcord
was being very violently pulled and the
engineer was whistling for brakes. The
train finally came to a standstill, and
Swift and kept our seats and kept ON
talking. AS after five minutes or more,
there were no signs of the train going
ahead, we concluded to go back and see
what was the cause of the delay.
grouped about the sleeper with their
lanterns, and we soon found out that
the sleeper had left the track and had
been running over the ties for how far
we never knew. The night was pitch
dark and it was raining very hard. 1t
took the men at least three hours to get
the sleeper on the rails again. The
wheels were very near the end of the
ties, and had the train gone 100 yards
farther the sleeper would have been off
the ties and over high embankment.
Frank Martin of the Missouri, Kan
sas and Texas said:
~ remember of a disastrous wreck
being almost miraculously averted on
the Memphis and Little Rock road
along about 1888. A passenger train
was travelling at high rate of speed
when the engine threw piece of rail
about three feet long out of the track.
This piece of rail was thrown at least
% feet from the track. Strange as it
seems, the tender, baggage car, coaches
and sleepers went over this place where
the rail was out and gained the rail
again without one of the cars leaving
the track except when the wheels went
down ON TO the ties at one end of the
broken rail, only to mount the rail
again at the other end of the track.
About all the Inconvenience the pas
sengers experienced was slight shak-
ing.
Assistant General Passenger Agent
Ryan said:
II remember two instances when the
lives of engineers and firemen were
saved by a seeming intervention of
providence. A number of years ago
new trestle was being put in, and false
works had been erected to permit of the
temporary passage of trains. The work
men had failed to put in some necessary
bolts. The first train that came along
was a freight. AS soon as the engine
struck the false work it gave way, and
down went the engine. The fall was
one of 90 feet, and in falling the engine
made a complete revolution and alight-
ed on the ground upon its wheels right
side up, and the engineer and fireman
both escaped injury, although they
were probably pretty badly Jared by
the fall
THE other case know of is that on
train running at good speed when
the engine ran into large rock that
had fallen On the track just at the
mouth of a tunnel The impact caused
the tender to bend up from the rear end
and form a protecting hood over the en-
gineer and fireman in the locomotive
cab. and they were uninjured. Had this
not occurred, they would either have
been badly inJure or had their lives