The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1900-02-21
A QUEER EXPLOSION.
HOW A MOUNTAIN LOCOMOTIVE
CAME 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 curl
Gus wreck, the facts in which he will
vouch for.
sIt is such remarkable thing" said
Mr.. Alquist to a reporter, that l fear
many will be inclined to brand 1t as
pipe l have been railroading now
for over 20 years, and never in all my
varied experience have seen such a
unique and complete wreck as the one
1 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 a very peculiar way.
cat the time this wreck occurred /
was holding down the job of train dis
patcher at Soldier Summit, Utah, and
a tough old job it was. Never been
there, I suppose? Well, Soldier Sum-
NIT is a station on the top of one OF
the Wasatch divides, a bleak and lone
ly ace, where the Rio Grande West
ern has roundhouse and coal chute
located. At the summit are long
snOwsheds covering the tracks. These
sheds protect the line from the WIN
ter. And it is only due to this method
that a train ever gets over the noun
tain.
"On both sides Of the mountain the
line winds down in 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
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 it has run up the spur as far as the
momentum attained in it's descent Will
take it.
"All heavy trains have an extra To-
comotive 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
c,-o +o,,,,, in +ba u-actorn valley
that the 9:20 freight would be 80 min
utes late on account Of having to pull
out crippled engine, 1,12o. She had
burned out her fues 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 a snowstorm raging, and the. wind
howled around the station like the
mischief. When the overdue $40 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 cngine:'
Behind the doshouse" shouted the
con But as l held my lamp above
nv head | failed to see it. was just
about TO call his attention to it when.
during a lUll in the storm. we plainly
heard the familiar rattle Of the rails
as the runaway engine flew at light
ming speed down tic mountain. NO.
1.129 had broken loose and was tear
ing down the grade to destruction.
Il 5umped 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 Il stop But l was too
late. Almost at the same instant l
threw the levex Il terrific explosion was
heard from far down the mountain.
The runaway had exploded.
81 thought you said a moment ago,
Mr.. Alquist." interrupted The Scimi-
tar man, that the locomotive was
dead one?' II 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. II could easily see how the
dead engine could break loose on that
grade. and could understand not
hearing its descent during such
bowling blizzard, but the explosion
foored 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
filled with compressed air. 1t was not
long before those flying pistons had
worked up a pressure Of nearly 500
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 Creek her boiler
let go.''-Memphis Scimitar.