The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-06-08

The increase in the gross earnings
of the Pennsylvania railroad last month
was $1,1S6.OOO.
1t Is now proposed to build fast lake
steamers equipped with the Parsons
Westinghouse turbine engines, and 1t is
| expected that with such engines won
| derful speed can be attained.
A New York broker says there Is
| foundation for the story that the Union
Pacific, Pennsylvania and Chicago &
| Alton are to buy an interest in the
| Chicago, Burlington e. Quincy.
Wood Benson, who is now 90 years
Of age, ran the first railrod train in
the country, between Albany and
Schenectady, N. Y. When the run was
made, II years ago, General Winfield
Scott, Thurlow Weed and Commodore
Vanderbilt were on the train.
| 1t is claimed by engineers that the
large class Ga engines now in use on
the Ft. Wayne road are developing
defects rapidly. The frames are Civ
ing out, the bolts holding the cylinders
and steam chests are falling, and 1t Is
predicted that before two years not
! one Of those big engines will be found
in the passenger service Of the Penn
sylvania lines. No doubt a better type
of engine will soon be devised which
will be the emanation Of the motive
power, departments separate from the
ideas Of the transportation officials
who too often want to sacrifice business
for economy and advise the motive
power officials, with the result that
monstrosities Of engines are introduce
ed which prove expensive piles of scrap
in the end.
When the Ft. Wayne limited ex-
press No. 2 arrives at Crestline 40 min
utes late in the dead hour Of the night,
and the Pittsburg division engineer
couples on his engine with the under
standing that the time must be made
up, then Is when the big engine must
be put to the severest test. There is no
mercy for the fireman, no mercy for
the steel and iron of the great mass of
machinery, and under a full head OF
steam the race for Pittsburg is COM
menced, says the Pittsburg Post. With
the throttle wide open, the reverse lever
hitched up to the high speed notch, and
the alertful eye Of the engineer on the
glimmering signal lights ahead, the
long race of 1S9 miles Is commenced
1t is coal, coal-nothing but shovel coaI
for the fireman. His trained eye Is or
the steam guage and he watches the
smoke stack at the same time and q
thousand times he must swing the
heavy furnace door open and pitch the
bitumen in with care and judgment
With the big ports wide open and the
engine swinging, roaring and painting
it is no easy job to do the work, but the
poor fireman does it and does it well
and nine out of ten times the great
train grinds around the Pennsylvania
lavenue curve, near the Union station in
the gray of morning right on the dot
Then the engineer and fireman, weary
from their long run must wait perhaps
80 minutes before they can get back to
Allegheny to put their engine away
and then they plod along to their board
ing houses and hunt up their hunks and
in few minutes fall asleep completely
exhausted.
Clinton Cassidy, the Big Four engi-
neer who was killed in wreck at
Greensburg, was well known among
engineers running through Canton. He
was a whole-souled, genial fellow and
a great favorite with his fellow rail-
road men. His death was one of those
tragedies of the rail fraught with pc
culiar circumstances and 1t furnishes a
touching story. Cassidy was laid off for
80 days for some slight infraction of the
rules, and his time was up" as they
say In railroad parlance, on Saturday.
The day previous Cassidy's regular run
fell due, and he was told he could take
it out IL he wanted to. He said he pre-
ferred to wait until his lay-off had ex-
pired, and consequently he was sum-
moned to work Saturday, being sent
over to indianapolis to bring a special
freight train back to Cincinnati. Cross
Ing point near Greensburg, where the
track is being raised, the weight of
Cassidy's big compound engine spread
the rails, and this caused the wreck.
The engineer saw the danger after the
derailment and jumped to save his life.
His head struck on post of barbed
wire fence at the base of the embank-
ment, and he was all but completely
scalped. Two feet further on he would
have cleared the fence. AS 1t was he
was caught In the wires and held fast,
while the heavy freight car behind the
| engine toppled over the embankment
and pinioned him, slowly crushing the
plucky engineers life out. He was
caught at o'clock in the afternoon. and
lived for nearly an hour, the rescuing
party resorting to every means to get
to him. AS they worked he urged them
to hurry. saying: "Tm hurt pretty bad,
boys" The rescuers made an effort to
dig In under the tunnel up to where
he was held, but whenever they did
the loose mud would slip and the car
only squeezed the dying man the
harder. His voice grew fainter and
fainter, and finally inconsistencies en-
sued. and po''r Cassidy breathed his last