The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-05-06
HELD THROTTLE
OF THE FLYER.
Engineer Gates Relates SOME of His
Experiences.
OLDEST MAN IN SERVICE
Had as His Pet "old Number 3d."
a Relic Of the Famous ThaXton
Wreck, Which Now Draws
the Cannonball.

The fastest train in the South is NO:
40 and 46, known as the Cahhoiioati'
which makes round trip daily over t!ie
Norfolk and Western line between ftlch-
mond and Norfolk. This trains scheduie
calls for sixty miles an hour, While run
ming, which is about as much as an
engine can do with the train 1t carries,
hut when there is time TO be made UP,
she is called upon to do better, and mas
proved herself equal to the occasion.
Captain Robert Echols, conductor on
the train, says he has known an indicator
on the cars to startle the passengers by
mechanically announcing that they were
leaving their friends and relatives behind
at the rate of seventy-siX miles an hour
This. he says, is about as fast as the
..Cannonball' has ever run. but that
great speed is reached at some time
during every week, particularly if there
is any lost time to be regained.
This train leaves Norfolk for Rich
n1ond at exactly 4:35, generally with
three coaches-a combination mail ana
baggage. and two passeger coaches-and
rolls quietly under the shed at the Union
Station in Richmond at o'clock she
runs 1O4 miles, making eight or ten stops,
in las minutes. This train is seldom
late, for 1t is given the flsht Oh way
over all others. The train was put on
and scheduled at this fast time to COM
pete with the Chesapeake and Ohio. which
also has a through line and fast train
from Norfolk to Richmond.
ENGINE WITH A HISTORY.
The engines that pull this 'Cannonball'
are Nos. so and 55-S-wheel Baldwin
locomotives, With 6S-inoh wheel, built nigh
and for attaining speed. Engine No.
80 has a history. When No. &C. was
brought new. With her loraZen trimming
shining, from the Baldwin Locomotives
Works. she was taken to the western
division of the road. and there for several
years was the fastest passenger engine
in service, drawing the vestIhule limited
from Bristol, the western terminus of the
line. to Lvnchburg, over the mountain
grades and across the high bridges which
span the picturesque streams of South
western Virginia.
So she continued in service for several
| years until the terrible night of the
| Thaxton wreck, when she was pulling that
Inflated train, which plunged into the
mad, muddy foods of a swollen mountain,
| stream. causing death and destruction IN
! the most terrible wreck ever known IN
! the State. After this disaster, No. 30 was
| in the repair shop for some time, but be-
| ing thoroughly overhauled and repaired
! she was again put in service and is now
! on the fastest run on the road.
/ At the throttle of No. So. when she speeds
! the ..camonbaIl' from Norfolk TO Rich
mond, is Engineer William T. Gates. OF
| Petersburg, the Oldest engineer in regular
service in the South. Mr. Gates is sixty
| one years old. is hale. hearty and weighs
i nearly two hundred pounds. His hair IS
white with age but he has the spring of
! youth in his step, and an eye as clear
as the polished crystal in the headlight of
| his engine. He has been in the employ
of the Norfolk and Western railroad for
thirty-eistt years. tllirtythree of Which
| he has been at the throttle, and. as he
says, he has never cost the railroad a
dollar for wreck. HIS career in the ser
| vice is remarkable in that he has never
| been in a wreck. H e has narrowly miss
ed them at times, but something has al
ways averted disaster and he has yet to
! be in his first accident.
! He says he realizes that all that is ne
! cessary for a man to be in a wreck and
possibly buried under his engine is for
/! him TO stay in the business long enough,
( and tits pretty certain to come, and for
that reason" he says, II think my time
! is about UP, and as soon as am able
! intend tosretire.
When there is any fast running to he
! done Gates is usually called on to take
!; the train. Every Sunday he is off his
| regular run he takes the New York pa
!: per train from Petersburg to Norfolk.
/ which train makes the run of 81 miles
q in an hour and thirty-one minutes.