Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-01-12
4 QUEER EXPLOSION.
HOW A MOUNTAIN LOCOMOTIVE
CANE TO AN UNTIMELY END

There Was Neither Fire In Her Fur
| mace Nor Water In Her Boiler, and
Yet She Managed to Blow Up In the
Most Approved Style.
| Mr.. Henry AlQuist, prominent rail
road man, relates the story of a curl.
Gus wreck, the facts in which he viii
vouch for.
''It is such a remarkable thing" said
Mr.. ADJUST TO a reporter, that l fear
many will be inclined to brand il as
pipe l have been raiIroading now
for over 20 years, and never in all my
| varied experience have | seen such a
unique and complete wreck as the one
J l speak of-that of engine l. 129 Of the
| Rio Grande Western. Railroad men
| will tell you that locomotives seldom
| explode nowadays, but 1929 did and
| in a very peculiar way.
! AT the time this wreck occurred
| was holding down the job of train dis
| patcher at Soldier Summit, Utah. and
| Il tough old job it was. Never been
| there. l suppose? Well, Soldier Sum
| init is a station on the top OF one OF
| the Wasatch divides. 4 bleak and lone
| ly place, where the Rio Grande West
| ern has Il roundhouse and coal chute
| located. At the summit are long
| Snowsheds covering the tracks. These
| sheds protect the line from the win
| ter. And il is 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 a succession of
winding curves TO lessen the grade.
| Running off from the railway are
switches, which. diverging from the
grade, run up into the hills and grad
ually come TO "A dead level. These
switchbacks. as they are called. are so
constructed that they can be thrown
from any point on the grade. And if
Il train breaks in two while ascending
the steep grade the runaway cars can
be switched on to one of these spurs.
where the brcakaway finally stops aft
or il has run up the spur as far as the
momentum attained in its descent will
take it.
"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 | got word from Clear
IL. y,
that the 0:20 freight would be so min
utes late on account of having TO pull
out 4 crippled engine, 1,129. She had
burned out her fiues 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. l heard the freight coughing up
the long grade from Clear Creek. There
was 4 snowstorm raging. and the wind
hOwled around the station like the
mischief. When the overdue 9:20 pull
ed into the shelter of the big snow
sheds on the wind swept summit. the
first thing l asked was, Where's the
dead engineer
behind the doghOusc" shouted the
con- But as l held my lamp above
my head l failed to see it. was just
about to call his attention to it when.
during n lull in the storm. we plainly
heard the familiar rattle of the rails
as the runaway engine few at light
ming speed down the mountain. No.
1,129 had broken loose and was tear
ing down the grade to destruction.
II jumped and pulled the lever which
opened the spur switches. This l
knew would prevent n smashup. rs the
engine would run up on the switchback
and come TO stop. But l was too
late. Almost ut the same instant l
threw the lever Il terrific explosion was
heard from far down the mountain.
The runaway had exploded
81 thought you said moment ago
Mr.. ADJUST" interrupted The Scimi-
tar man, that the locomotive was n
dead one" If she had no fire under
her boiler. how could she explode?"
THAT was the only thing l couldn't
understand myself" the railroad man
replied. Il could easily see how the
dead engine could break loose on that
grade. and | could understand not
hearing its descent during such a
bowling blizzard. but the explosion
floored 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
as the speed increased with every rev.
olution OF her drivers her boiler soon
filed with compressed air. 1t was not
long before those flying pistons had
worked up n pressure of nearly 800
pounds TO the square inch. which came
in faster than it could escape by the
safety valve. and before the old ma
chine reached Clear Greek her boiler
let go."-Memphis Scimitar.