Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1900-01-30
A QUEER EXPLOSION.
HOW A MOUNTAIN LOCOMOTIVE
CAME TO An uNTIMELy END.

There was Neither Fire In Her Tus-
asce Nor Water In Her Boiler. aAs
Yet Sd. Managed to Blow UD In the
Most Approved style.
Mr.. Henry ADJUST, prominent rail-
road man. relates the story of curl
Gus wreck. the facts In which he will
vouch for
'Tt Is such a remarkable thing" said
Mr.. ADJUST to q reporter. ''that fear
many will be inclined to brand Il -
pipe have been railroading now
for over 20 years, and never In all my
varied experience have seen such .
unique and complete wreck as the one
I speak of-that Of engine 1.129 Of the
Rio Grande Western. Railroad men
will tell you that locomotives seldom
explode nowadays. but 1.129 did and
In very peculiar way.
AT the time this wreck occurred !
was holding down the Job Of train dis
patcher at Soldier Summit, Utah, and
tough old Job II was. Never been
there. / suppose? Well, Soldier Sum-
init IL a station on the top Of one Of
the wasatch divides, bleak and lone
ly place. where the Rio Grande West
ern has q roundhouse and coal chute
located. At the summit are long
snowsheds covering the tracks. These
sheds protect the line from the win
ter. And II Ii only due to this method
that a train ever gets over the noun
tain.
ION both sides Of the mountain the
line winds down In q succession OF
winding curves to lessen the grade.
Running OF from the railway are
switches. which. dlverging from the
grade, run up into the hills and grad.
ually come to a dead level. These
switchbacks. AZ they are called. are 30
constructed that they can be thrown
from any point on the grade. And IL
q train breaks In two while ascending
the steep grade the runaway cars can
be switched on TO one OF these spurs,
where the breakaway finally stops aft
er II has run up the spur rs far as the
momentum attained In It's descent will
take II.
"All heavy trains have an extra To-
connective before the grade Is tackled.
These are called helper engines and
are kept In roundhouses at each side
Of the mountain with steam up.
zone night I got word from Clear
Greek. town In the western valley.
that the go freight would be 30 min
utes late on account Of having to pull
out crippled engine. l.129. She had
burned out her Gues and had to be
hauled to Grand Junction for repairs.
THAT night about 10 o'clock. after
had passed down the Salt Lake ex-
press. | heard the freight coughing up
the long grade from Clear Greek. There
was a snowstorm raging. and the wind
howled around the station like the
mischief. When the overdue 900 pull
ed Into the shelter Of the big snow
sheds on the wind swept summit. the
first thing I asked was, Where's the
dead engineer
"'Behind the doghouser shouted the
con- But as l held my lamp above
my head failed to see II. l was just
about to call his attention TO II when.
during q lull In the storm. We plainly
heard the familiar rattle Of the rails
as the runaway engine flew at light
ming speed down the mountain. No.
1.129 had broken loose and was tear
Ing down the grade to destruction.
81 jumped and pulled the lever which
opened the spur switches. This !
knew would prevent smashup. as the
engine would run up on the switchback
and come to a stop. But ! was too
late. Almost at the same instant ]
threw the lever terrific explosion was
heard from far down the mountain.
The runaway had exploded"
IL thought you said moment ago.
Mr.. Alquist." interrupted The Scimi-
tar man. that the locomotive was a
dead oney II she had no FIRE under
her boiler. how could she explodeT
THAT was the only thing couldn't
understand myself" the railroad man
replied II could easily see how the
dead engine could break loose on that
grade. and I could understand not
bearing It's descent during such a
bowling blizzard. but the explosion
doored me. The only theory which In
any way solved the mystery was that
the old kettle was blown up by com.
pressed air.
you see. when the engine broke
loose from the freight and started
down the mountain the pistons In the
cylinders began to act as air COM
pressors. During the rough trip up
her throttle probably Jared open. and
N the speed Increased with every rev.
olution Of her drivers her boiler soon
filed with compressed air. II was not
long before those dying pistons had
worked up a pressure Of nearly 500
pounds to the square inch. which came
In faster than II could escape by the
safety valve. and before the old ma
chine reached Clear Greek her boiler
Let go."-Memphis Scimitar.