Evening star., 1901-07-06
ENGINEERS NERVE.
Desperate Chances Which They Some
times Take.

81 have been often asked why railway
engineers disregard their instructions and
the warning signals along the line OF their
road" said the general superintendent of a
railroad to a Star man this morning. "and
1 have summed 1t up that it Is human
nature for men to take chances in their
business. and that engineers are no excep-
tion to the general run.
Sometimes they cannot give a satisfac-
tory reason why they do SO. / will give you
an authentic instance Of this habit, which
made me live ten years in thirty minutes:
"On a road / was at the time connected
with was long trestle over a bay, several
miles in length, with a drawbridge in the
center. The draw had been opened. and as
a tugboat was passing through the bridge
men heard the rumble of a fast, heavily
laden passenger train as it struck the
bridge a mile away. knowing that the red
danger signals were set with the opening
Of the draw. they supposed that the engi-
neer would slow up. or stop, as might be
necessary. Instead to their CONSERVATION,
the train came along at regular speed, and
frightful accident appeared inevitable.
They yelled to the captain Of the tugboat
to go at full speed. and as the boat glided
through the draw in the darkness they
eXerted themselves to swing the draw into
the locking bolts before the train could get
to the point where the rails separated
"The engineer, however. disregarded the
last danger signal a few hundred yards
from the draw, and came on. BY a remark
able coincidence OF time and position, the
draw, which was, Of course, in motion,
swung so that the rails Of the east-bound
track We're in juxtaposition with the west
bound track upon which the train was run
ming, and the heavy engine and one of the
passenger coaches, striking the east-bound
rails, glided upon the draw and stuck
there, the remaining portion of the train
being on the west-bound track making
almost a figure Of the coaches.
'If the draw had moved the thirtieth part
of a second faster or slower, the east-bound
rails would not have been opposite the
west-bound rails at the very instant that
the great engine struck them. and fright
full disaster would have resulted. When i
got out on the bridge a few minutes later
1 fully expected to find the train in the
bottom of the bay, and the draw smashed
the spot. and asked him why he had not
observed the signals. He admitted that he
saw them. but could not give a satisfactory
reason for falling to observe them. He evil
IDENTIFY took his chances of finding the draw
closed when he reached 1t.
1.-The engineer of today is a sober, steady,
nervy man, especially on the fast express
trains on the big roads. 1t is nerve that
makes one man carry limited express
train through the darkness of the night.
fog sleet and binding snow at sixty miles
an hour. The stories we read about of an
engineer losing his nerve after an accident
are largely fiction. In twenty-seven years
of active railroad life / have had but one
upon the ground that their nerves had gone
back on them for running the fast trains.
I have had men who have been flung fifty
feet over their tender In a head-on collision
and had a dozen bones broken. come to me
after they had been discharged from the
hospital and ask to be put back on their
old run. You see. they begin firing when
they are about eighteen or twenty, and the