The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-15
A HOODOOED LOCOMOTIVE
THE TRAGIC HISTORY AND FATE OF
IN ENGINE
That All of the RatIrond Men Believed
a. to be Unluclky.


almost from the first day she evel
turned a wheel, and her troubles rar
the gamut of the possibilities in the
locomotive disaster line, from the sim
pie derailment of her pony truck at tht
yard limit switch when the passenger
was due, to the oft-repeated expert
ment of two trains running in full
speed in opposite directions trying TIC
pass each other on the same pair OF
rails, The innumerable failures of this
experiment did not deter the $50" and
whenever head-end collision occurred
on the South Park the usual interroga-
ton was, "Who was on the so and
how badly was she damaged?" For
though it always takes two engines to
make head-end collision, the record
of the $50" was such that without in
quiries she was conceded beforehand
as one of the two.
Throughout the mountain roads of
Colorado she was known as the South
Park Hoodoo" and the sobriquet was
well earned If an engine struck a
landslide it was the go" anything
standing on the track and crashed into
by the passenger was sure to be the
80" unless, occasionally happened, the
W Was plilluS lile passenger anu
herself did the crashing. She had a
great reputation as a discoverer Of
broken rails and invariably followed
the discovery with plunge into bed
of the mountain ravine along which
the road ran. But out of all these
scrapes she would emerge from the re-
pair shop with all traces of her recent
disaster removed, but still holding her
reputation.
She was one of the many Mason en-
gines purchased by the South Park and
was Of the type designated in the ver-
nacular of the road as sewing machines
from having their eccentric gear out
side the main and side rods. An odd
looking locomotive to eyes not accus-
toned to them, but certainly popular
as a class among enginemen, because
of their easy riding qualities. This
popularity extended to the 80" until
such time as she acquired unto herself
the reputation of man killer.
1t is to be regretted that a complete
record of her sins has not been kept,
but such as are at hand will demon
strate that it was no idle superstition
that caused qualm of trepidity to the
men when called to make trip on her,
and as the engines were run in the
changing system every crew on the
road had a turn with the 80" They
knew that, whatever the cause, she had
been wrecked more times than all the
other engines on the road.
On her first trip she left the rail,
through some pretext or other, with a
heavy train of ore and on down grade
and after some days the wreckers
found her in the bottom of the canon,
the under dog in pile of debris that |
had once constituted train of cars
with its lading. They also found I
Sam" Willard the engineer, with his !
left leg cooked to the knee, where it
had been pressed against the boiler
head by the coal pile. Sam" was
alive and recovered, but "Bill'' Redd-
ing, his firemen, had been killed right /
away, as one of the wreckers expressed |
It, "Sam" had his leg amputated, and
about a year later again appeared again
for work. 1t is a strange coincidence T.
tht Sam lost his left leg on the sos"
maiden trip, and lost his right leg on /
the same engine on the last trip she
ever made on the South Park. SANS
last mishap was in a collision where
he was about to jump before they
struck, but he was caught in the gang
way and his remaining leg was sacri-
feed. Strange, too, but Sam" recover
ed from this, had sticks fitted to both
his stumps. and ran locomotives on
the Denver and Rio Grande and the
Rio Grande Western until, like many
another, he went out in the great
strike of 1894 He is now proprietor
of a drug store in Salt Lake City.
SEVEN MORE VICTIMS.
In the intervals between her first and
last trips on the South Park seven
more men lost their lives on the go" {
and as many had been manned or
seriously injured Her last victim {
previous to Sam Wizards second
wreck with her, was Engineer John
Virgins, who had both legs broken by
the breaking of the back side rod on
the engineers side, which plowed and
thrashed through the cab until the /
fireman brought the train to- a stop s
After Wizards last accident the $50
had an extended season in the back !
shop, and about the time she was l
ready for the paint Virgins reported {
for duty to the master mechanic. The l
latter, facetiously inclined, suggested s
that he wait a. day or two and the so
would be ready but Virgins saw no
humor in the remark, or at least in ;
the prospect of again getting the hoo
loo He suddenly discovered that he d
was not so well as he had thought, and d
departing for home didn't show up at Il
he, roundhouse for month, calculating Z
that the so had had ample time to
zet into more trouble and be laid up
again.
However, Virgins and all the rest
# the South Park engineers and fire. d
men had nothing more to fear from u
he hoodoo, for about this time is suit II
d the Union Pacific to transfer the
rattle to the Denver and Rio Grande. =
The locomotives, including the so :.
transferred to the then narrow gauge II
Utah and Northern Railway, connect q
ng Ogden, Utah, with Butte, Mon, -
nd passing through Idaho. -
This was in the Winter of 1856, and q
n the early morning of the 18th of -
Iay of the latter year the sos" head :.
ght was put out forever in one of the =,
trangest and most disastrous wrecks y,
yer recorded. AS stated the road was -
arrow gauge, but the management u