Daily camera., 1901-12-12
TURKEY THE ENGINEER.
the Record fer the West
GhoYs Read.

In St. Nicholas Cleveland Moffett
gives an account of the breaking Of
A record in running train. The
last stage Of the journey found tho
officials behind the schedule time.
But it w.s made up-by quiet man
named Turnkey. Still, in spite OF
these brave efforts, they pulled out
of Erie Is minutes late, and started
on the last relay with gloomy faces.
It was SO miles to Buffalo, the end
of the race, and they must DO there
BY ll:3l TO win, which called for an
average speed Of over 70 miles an
hour, including slow-downs, No train
in the world had ever approached
such an average. and their own rae
ing average since leaving Chicago was
much below 1t. 30 what hope was
there7
There wss hope In . tall, sparely
built man named Bill Turnkey, about
whom nobody know much except that
he was . good engineer who ran Il
rather clumsy tsn-wheel locomotive
not considered very desirable In q
race. All the other locomotives had
been eight-wheelers. Still, the new
engine had one advantage: She car
ried water enough In her tank for
the whole run, and need not slow
up TO refill, - the others had done.
She had another advantage: That
she carried Turnkey, one Of these men
who rise up In sudden emergencies
and do things, whether they are pos
sible or not. 1t was not possible,
everybody vowed. to reach Buffalo
Greek by 1881. IAN right" said Tun-
key. quietly, and then
Within 20 rodl Of the start he had
his engine going 30 miles an hour, and
he pressed her harder and harder un-
til II miles out Of Erie she struck
an somile pace, and held It - far as
Brockton, when she put forth all her
strength, and did burst Of dvs miles
in 81 minutes, one Of these miles
at the rate Of s2h miles an hour, as
the watches showed. And l never
want any more of that IN mine" said
the superintendent.
The next town was Dunkirk, where
. local ordinance put , ten-mile limit
on the speed of trains. Turnkey
smiled a. they roarsd past the sta
ton at moro than go A crowd lined
the tracks here. for the telegraph had
carried ahead the news Of hair-rais-
ing run. That crowd was only blur
to staring, frightened eyes At the car
windows. The officials were begin
ming to realize what kind of an engt-
neer they had ahead this time.
Whisssss! How they did run! Wahr.
Wahr! barked the little bridges, and
were left behind! H-o-o-o! beloved
tunnel. And rip, whirrr. as they
slammed around double-reverse
curve with q vicious swing that made
the bolts rattle in the last car. Men
put their mouths to other mems ears
and tried to say that perhaps Mr..
Turnkey wos getting little over
zealous. Much good that did! Mr..
Turnkey had the bit in his teeth no"
and wac running the race alone.
At ll:0o they swept past Silver
Creek with 20 miles to 60 and IS min
utss to make 1t in. Hurrah! They
had made up time enough TO save
them!
At ll:.0 they passed Lake View.
Twelve miles more, and IL min
utes," yelled somebody, waving his
hat.
"Toboggsn-slids all the way" yelled
somebody else. Wen do It easy.
Hooray!"
They passed Athol Springs at 1l:24.
all mad with excitement. They had
seven minutes for eight miles, and
were cheering already.
We'll make it with half q minute
to spare" said the only man in the
private car who was reasonably cool !
He was four seconds out OF the way,
for they crossed the line % seconds
before 1881, and won the race by less
than half q minute, beating the New
York Central's record per mile on the
whole run by the fraction of u Sec
ond, and beating the whole worlds
record in the last relay by several
minutes, the figures standing-Tun-
keys hgurss-so miles from Erie to
Buffalo in 10 minutes and 4s seconds,
or an average speed Of 1921 miles an
hour.
"Do?" said the Official. What did
We do? Why. ws-we-" He paused
helplsssly, and then added, with a
smile: well. II you'll excuse the
slang, NO didn't do q thing 70 Tun-
keyi"