The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-10-28
RUNNING A LOCOMOTIVE
A CHURCH LECTURE ny THE ENGI-
NEER OF A LIMITED TRAIN.
Talk by a Man Who stepped from the
Cab tn the Rostrum-The En-
gineer's Responsibility.

| Boston Globe.
| Eugene Z. Potter Is the engineer who
| runs the Airline limited between Boston
| ard Willimantic over the Midland division.
| New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail-
road. The distance covered is eighty-six
miles each way and it is made without
/ stop. From Readville the speed averages
| fifty-one miles an hour, while mile after
mile of the journey is reeled off in less
| than sixty seconds, where the grade and
| other conditions are favorable. From the
| time he pulls out OF South Union Station,
prompt to a second, one hour after mid
day. until. with equal punctuality. he lands
/ the return train here at 6 D. m, the en-
|. gineer is weighted with cares and response
/ bilities. The same statement, indeed. Is
true of every man of similar occupation,
| but it applies with exceptional force 10
the one who handles the lever of limited
4 train.
] Mr.. Potter, though not many years be-
ycnd forty. has had about twenty years
| experience as engineer of fast express
trains. He ran the ghost train, COM
| posed of white palace cars that made sucn
record on the old New York & New
England road.
! 1t is not often that locomotive engineer
in active daily practice steps down from
| his cab to ascend the lecture platform.
| This is exactly what Engineer Potter did
| on Wednesday night At 7:15 he left the
roundhouse in Roxbury, having housed his
| engine. and less than sixty minutes later
| in the large vestry of the Dudley-street
Baptist Church, before the mems union,
began very interesting ninety minute talk
| on Running Locomotive"
Neither apology nor explanation is needed
! to qualify the statement that Mr.. Potter
scored a complete success. He was lucid,
| graphic. witty and, above all. instructive.
He said:
| 'The subject that propose to speak upon
| will require us to make an imaginary jour-
| ney in my cab. / should be glad to take
| any or you with me in the flesh, but we
! can't do that now. The authorities will
| permit no third to ride on the en-
| CINE. And this is right. 1t came to be
| place when an outsider was engine pas
| senger, and those having charge and re-
| sponsibility not unnaturally thought that
| the attention OF the driver and fireman,
| would be more closely given to their duties
If they did not have to entertain COM
! pany
Let me try to give you a successive ac-
| count of the different things that take up
| my attention in the course of a day In
the prosecution of my duty. There are
five hours consumed i'm the round trip be-
| tween Boston and Willimantc. The start
| is made at l o'clock in the day and we are
/ back in the terminal station at o'clock,
| but that does not represent the time and
| attention l have to give daily.
AT II a. m. l must be at the roundhouse
at Roxbury and sign the book there in
| which is recorded the running of my watch
| as compared with the time of the standard
| clock-the variation must never be thirty
| seconds in month. This is very close, but
| ii is right, too, and don't criticise, in fact
do not criticise anything my superiors do.
II is all dictated by conscientious regard
| there is anything on the bulletin board in
| the way of announcement, for that is where
the changes are posted for our information.
| to run slowly over it, if new rails are be-
ing laid, or If for some reason the super
| intendent has asked that the locomotive
| whistling be suspended at certain places,
| In fact If there is any change in the trains
| or the roadbed we are notified on the bull
to me especially L will find it in my letter
box.
INSPECTING THE ENGINE.
"Then | start in to inspect my engine
| OF course. look ii the night before
when put up, but in such a big and COM
plicated piece of machinery the time is
never wasted that is given to extra scru-
tiny. Something. is all the time getting
out of place; if it is not one thing it is
another. There are the oil cups to be
looked after. the bearings TO be examined
| your sand boxes to see about and all other
things.
| "At 1855 you find backing up and
| coupling on. Now let us see what is my
| responsibility. To begin with, there is
the engine. That cost $4,000. a Pullman
car costs even more-I think they cost
| $4,000 The train is worth about SIS, 600
| Now, we are carrying 80 passengers and
| upward and the law places value OF
$1,000 each upon their lives. There you
| are; there's your responsibility"
Mr.. Potter here took occasion highly to
| compliment the locomotive firemen. II
| have the greatest respect for Them" he
| said Without them the engineer would
| be powerless, and 1T is from their ranks
that the engineers are recruited. Besides.
| l have been one myself
J The speaker then entered upon n very
! minute and exact account of railway sig
| nal codes. He explained the great pre-
cision and exactness that an engineer
had constantly to observe to read the
| signals correctly. He noted the extreme
| difficulty thus to act in thick or stormy
weather, and referred TO the direful con-
sequences resulting from misinterpreta-
| tion. These signals must be read often
| times when the train is moving at a rate
! of a mile a minute. 1t is all important
| that they should be seen at the earliest
| possible instant, in order TO avert acct
| dents.
The engine tank, said Mr.. Potter holds
| 1850 gallons of water. BY the time Frank
| lin is reached, an hour and thirty-seven
| minutes. 5000 gallons have been used UP
| in generating steam. The round trip con-
sumes between five and six tons of coal
| To replenish the supply of water without
| losing time on the journey, so that 1t
| may never be low in the boiler, a track
| tank is laid between the rails near Put
| nam, from which the water is scooped
| In. This tank has a depth of seven inches
! and width of twenty-eight inches, and is
| 1,5O0 feet long. The speed is reduced at
! that point to between thirty-five and forty
| miles an hour, and in the twenty seconds
| required to make the distance $500 gall
| Ions are forced into the tank.
Mr.. Potter told of the perpetual alertness
| required of a driver to detect hot box
knowledge of which he receives through
his sense of smell; how he has TO see that
his lubricator valves do not become clogged
and that the pressure for the air brakes is
maintained, well other detail
| It's all well enough when things go
smoothly" said Mr.. Potter "but the time
comes once in while when the man at the
lever is put to his best. 1t happened to me
| so on the first day of last month. Ny To-
connective broke down near Hyde Park on
my outward trip. and another had to be
sent out from Boston. Then later on had
| heated journal and to complete my mis-
cry my engine struck and killed ten-year-
old boy near Putnam. That was one of the
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