Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-11
TALES TOLD BY ENGINEERS
QUEER-ACTING LOCOMOTIVES AND
DISAPPEARING CARS.
Strange Stories That illustrate the
Eines That Were "HoOdOOed."
From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

| From the Milwaukee Sentinel.
In reminiscent mood the older ones among
| the visiting locomotive engineers are full
| Of story and incident. They get together
to tell their hair-breadth escapes. Of their
| hoodooed engines and ghosts. for every
railroad has its ghost: Of 'logy engines.
| Of lazy engines and tired locomotives" to
their hearts content. Many of these sto-
r1es make interesting reading.
| Would you believe" asked an old-timer
| of the rail. that engines need rest. that
they absolutely get tired?
| "It is fact" continued he. II have
known engines to get absolutely tired out
| in my experience. 1 remember several
| years ago on the Pittsburg. Fort Wayne
and Chicago, at a station called Nevada. l
| was making a pretty sharp run to clear
| No ., the fast mail. and was getting pretty
| close to her time. We went into Nevada
| on heavy grade. when I signaled for the
| switch. and the station tender came down
| and opened the switch Just as we reached
| the opening / discovered that the engine
| was going to lay down between enhausts.
I could hear the express rumbling down the
| hill behind l was little nervous as the
| engine went on to a frog, on the sharp
curve to the siding. AS feared. she quit.
| lay down like steer in the corn. l mad
| thirds of her load. I looked at the steam
gauge She had 800 pounds. all We were
| allowed to carry. There was absolutely
| no excuse for her refusing to pull that
train, except that she was tired.
In my disgust l turned to the fireman
without shutting off the throttle, and said:
"'Well. the old jade is played out
Knowing that it was impossible to back
up and take another run at the hill. there
was nothing to do but wait and flag the
express and have them push US in on to the
siding. The throttle was still wide OPEN
mind you, all this time. and the lever was
down in the corner. l presume for one
minute the engine was dead to the world
This minute seemed to me like an hour.
NY disgust and contempt was nearly
ready to break out, when from the safety
valve came a pop. followed by a groan
from the engine and what do you think
that engine picked up that tram ana went
on in the sidetrack at a ten-mle clip
Once" spoke up another old-timer. -!
was a brakeman on the old Detroit and
Milwaukee road, now part OF the Grand
Trunk system. ! was out on what they
called the night express, which was COM
bination Of freight and passenger. Between
Davisburg and Fentonville the train broke
in twain. went out on the train. ana
when the forward part had discovered the
break and backed down, l went down ana
made the coupling and signaled the engi-
neer ahead. In those days all freight trains
carried a bell rope: when l coupled up the
rope and got back to the caboose, it seemed
to me that there was a sight OF slack IN
the bell rope I reeled and reeled. but made
nothing more than casual mention or IT
Rock. At Fentonville ] was given the num-
bers Of two cars to 'shunt' out. I looked
the train over and over. and no such cars
Were in the train. reported the matter 10
the conductor.
He said I was blind, called me idiot.
He said they were there when We left De-
troit for he personally took the number OF
the cars of the train, so he started out big
ger than life to make me believe l was an
idiot He went the full length Of the train
one way. but did not discover the cars. then
walked back to the engine again and count.
ed the cars He was two cars short. None
had been sidetracked since leaving Detroit.
The result was that the matter was report
ed at the Office and the next morning the
Fentonville accommodation was ordered to
look out for those stray cars. They found
them where the train broke in two. on
either side of the track. one fully ten feet
in the clear, and the other down the bank
upside down.
Stories like this common. yet the
ma jorty will not believe them and Will re-
gard this a pipe story The idea of
a train breaking in two and two cars break
ing out and the rest of the train running on
without jolt or jar sufficient to alarm the
train crew may be regarded as fishy, but
it is history no less
Here a third man put in his oar and said:
| Say Joe. on the old Western Union road.
or later what was called the Racine and
Mississippi, l knew an engine to leave the
track go down the bank. and the paSsen-
gers in the cars looked at the engine as the
balance of the train went past. and all
were innocent of the fact that they were
riding on an enginelesS train until it
began to slacken speed. At another time,
on the same road. If 1 remember rightly.
Frank Black. while running wild in coming
through the station of Rock Run on sharp
curve, discovered freight car standing
across the track. The wind had blown it
| off from the siding each side of the track.
and the trucks stood squarely in the clear Of
| the rails. Black said he had not time to
STOP so he opened the throttle and he and
his fireman got down behind the boiler head
| and waited for the crash. 1t came; they
split that car into splinters tore the smoke
stack and bell frame from the engine, rip
ped half the jacket off and made kindling
wood of the cab. but the engine stayed on
| the track Black had to fix up smoke
stack out of boards set down into the smoke
arch around the nozzles, but he went into
Racine with his own steam. and boosted
| that he had never been 'towed in yet. This
story is history, although l am not person.
ally known to the facts. But 1t Is of
the stories that old-timers relate who knew
Wisconsin in the days when Alexander
Mitchell and Capt Gilbert Knapp of Ra-
cine We're the biggest men from the rail-
way point of view.
Il have known engines that were abso-
| lutely 'hoodooed' l knew of an engineer
who was eternally in trouble yet he
thoroughly practical man. but he was al
ways breaking down going into the ditch.
Several times he had narrow escapes from
death. He went through all the accidents
that engineers can undergo-throwing off
blowing out of gauge cocks breaking side
rods and other like mishaps. Finally. we
laid it to the engine: said she was hoodooed.
He was given another engine. and the same
il-luck followed him. One morning. stand
ing in the gangway between the cab and
tank, he threw a tire and broke side rod.
The whipping of the rod and the joltng of
the tireless wheel threw him from his
CINE and he was severely injured. He re-
covered from his injuries. was given still
another engine, and still his misfortunes
pursued him. He quit the road some twenty
years ago and went to the Flint and Pere
Marquette in Michigan. where he has had a
continuous run of prosperity and good luck.
never has even so much as Slipped
centric to use his own words. since he
changed roads,
Before the time of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers men used to run the
railroads in their own way, the officers
were absolute dictators. dominating the
men to excessive labor and to the endan-
germent of their lives and the company's
properties. In my personal experience"
said one of the party. Il remember a hair
breadth escape on the Detroit Toledo d.
vision Of the Michigan Southern road. L
had just got in with my train from Goshen
on the air line, 1t being the fifth day and
,;rbt Gov tIa ,nIa