The Delawarean., 1900-09-01


built but No. 1414 was not sent back
on the road for few weeks. The Off
cials waited until the gossip had died
out. There was talk of giving her a
new number, but that would have been
admitting that she was queer" car
After a vacation of eight weeks the
car was loaded with flour for Wells
vile and made the trip without Incl
dent. She was reloaded with shocks
for a Chicago cooper, but not without
an adventure. There was q rich old
widower at Wellsville named Carney,
and he had a lovable daughter named
Mary. While the girl was in love with
young fellow named Phillips, the ia
ther wanted her to marry a man of his
own choice. The result was an elope-
ment and perhaps the only one of the
kind ever heard of. With the conniv-
ance of the station agent Phillips and
the girl were locked up in No. 1414
provided with food and water, and
while the wrathy old father was riding
over the highways with a shotgun in
his hands and blood in his eye the
happy lovers We're on their way to Chi
cago to be married.
Two weeks later the car cut up rusty
again. She was loaded with agricul-
tural implements and bound west and
was in the middle of train. After
running along as smoothly as you
please for 30 miles she suddenly balk-
ed--that is, her wheels gripped the
rails as if both brakes had been twist
ed by giants hand, fire flew from the
rails, and, as the coupling on the next
car ahead gave way, the train broke in
two, and there was cussing to beat the
band. There was no earthly excuse
for such conduct on the part of 1414.
Her journals were well packed, the
brakes off and the track all right.
When the train was coupled up she
moved off with the other cars like
snake going over the grass, but after
ten mile run she gripped again and
again broke the train. She was tried
again, and for the third time she cut
up rusty. This happened near sid
ing, and she was cut out of the train
and pulled in and left there. In the
cutting out not one of her wheels
would turn. They simply slid along
the rails. When the conductor report
ed the adventure he was given to un-
derstand that such stories didn't 20.
1t was held that his train crew ought
to have sense enough to discover what
was wrong, and the five of them barely
escaped a ten day lay off. They es-
capped it because a mechanic was sent
down from the shops who reported
that while he could find nothing wrong
with the car, she had certainly gripped
and baked and broken the train, as
reported. When hauled off the siding,
she rolled to her destination without
causing the slightest trouble.
1t had become certain that car No.
1414 was "queer critter," and every
body along the line was busy guessing
what would happen next. Two weeks
after her fit of sulks she was billed for
Chicago with load of potatoes. She
had rolled along for 100 miles without
the slightest hitch when the freight
train going east passed the express
going west, both under full speed on
the double tracks. OF a sudden No.
was on the inner side, and that wheel
went smashing into the drawing room
car and killed three passengers. 1t is
not once in ten years on any railroad
that a car wheel flies off; it was one
chance in a million that this wheel
should fly off at that particular spot
and that particular angle, but that was
what happened. Strangely enough,
the freight train was not wrecked.
Even with wheel gone the car held to
the rails and made run of ten miles.
There was cry of 'hoodoo' all along
the line, but the car was repaired and
run out again. She was an object of
curiosity from end to end of the road
and there were engineers who said
they would rather have a ghost in the
cab than that car in the train behind.
1t was month before No. 1414 made
another kick. Then she gripped the
rails and broke train. and that on a
down grade. She was heavily loaded
with grindstones. and, as a siding hap
pened to be handy, she was showed off
by herself. This siding was half mile
long and ended at morass. A buffer
had been placed at that end, of course,
but four hours after the car had been
left, and, as another train was ready
to pick her up, she could not be found
There was the siding, but where was
the car? There had been no wind of
account, but when they came to closely
investigate they found that car No
1414 had run down on the buffer with
force enough to uproot it and had then
taken header into the quagmire. A
corner of it was still visible, but before
the wreckers got there the entire body
of the car was ten feet below the sur
face and still going down. 1t might
have perhaps been recovered and its
freight saved. but when the superin-
tendent was told how things were he
telegraphed to the wreckers:
IF she doesn't come easy, let her go
to o-w
don't know whether she went as
far down as that or not, but the last
soundings placed her at 35 feet, and
she was given up as total loss, and
qvprvhodV felt raIiayad