Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-11-07
turnkey, THE ENGINEER.
fhe Man who Broke the Record For
the West shore Road.

the West shore Road.
In St. Nicholas, Cleveland Modett gives
| nm account of the breaking of a record in
| running a train on the Lake Shore road.
| The last stage of the journey found the
| officials behind schedule time. But 1t
was made up by a quiet man named
Turnkey. Still, in spite of these brave
efforts, they pulled out of Erie fifteen
minutes late and started on the last
relay with gloomy faces. II was eighty
six miles to Buffalo, the end of the race,
and they must be there by 11:31 to win.
which called for an average speed of
over seventy miles au hour. including
slow downs. No train in the world had
ever approached such an average, and
their own racing average since leaving
Chicaro was much below it. SO what
hope was there?
There was hope in n tall, sparcly built
man named Bill Turnkey, about whom no.
body knew much except that he was Il
good engineer who ran a rather clumsy
ten wheel locomotive not considered very
desirable in Il race. All the other loco
motives had been eight wheelers. Sull
the new engine had one advantage-She
corricd water enough in her tank for the
whole run and need not slow up to rehli
as the others had done. She had another
advantagc-that she carried lunkey, one
of these men who rise up in sudden emer-
gcncics and do things, whether they are
possible or not. 1t was not rossipie' ev-
orybody vowed, to reach Buffalo Creek
by 1t:31. IAN right" said Turkey
quietly. and then ,
Within forty rods of the start he had
his engine going thirty miles an hour,
and he pressed her harder and harder
until eleven miles out of Erie she struck
nm eighty mile pace and held 1t as far
MS Brockton, when she put forth all her
strength and did n burst Of five miles
in three and one-half minutes, one of
= these miles at the rate of nincty-two and
t onc-fourth miles an hour, as the watches
f showed. And | never want any more
of that in nine" said the superintendent.
! The next town was Dunkirk. where a
Q local ordinance put q ten mile limit on
, the spc,.l Of trains. Turnkey smiled as
they roarcd past the station Mt more than
eighty. \ crowd lined the tracks here,
Q for the telegraph had carried ahead the
+ news of Il hair raising run mat CROWD
o was only II blur to staring, frightened
o oves nj the car windows. TIL officials
@ were beginning to realize what kind OF
g an engineer they had ahead this time
v Wbisssss, How they did run. Wohr
k Wnhr, harked the little bridges and were
| left behind, H-o-o-o. beloved a tunnel
% And rip. whrrr. as they slammed aroun'
a n douhle reverse curve with n ylclou.
q swing that made the bolts rattle in th'
n last car. Men put their mouths to othe.
p. mems cars and tried to say that perhap
20 Mfr. Turnkey was getting n little over
- Jealous. Much good that did. Mr.. Tun
# key had the bit in his teeth now and wa
!, running the race alone.
n AT II :OG they swept past Silver Cree
+. with twenty.nine miles to 90 and twenty
III five minutes to make it in. iiurrnh
They had made up time enough TO say
IS them.
is At 1920 they passed Lake View.
is Twelve miles more and eleven mir
"a utes." yelled somebody. waving his ha'
| "Toboggan slide all the way, yeii'
ii. somebody else. Wen do IL easy
"a Hooray!"
They passed Athol Springs at II "a, a
Il. mad with excitement. They had sevol
minutes left for eight miles and We
y. cheering already.
well make it with half n minute +
~ spare" said the only man in the privit
-" car who was reasonably cool. lie "a
H., four seconds out of the way, for to,
49,. crossed the line twcnty-six seconds 10
fore 1881 and won the race by less ma
half a minute, beating the New or
:" Central's record per mile on the vhoI
i run by the fraction of a second an
beating the whole worlds record / III
Nv last relay by several minutes. the t,urc
Nv standing-Tunkey's ~iguros-eishy-si
~" miles from Erie to Buffalo in scent
minutes and f~orty-siX seconds, r a
i" average speed of scvcnty-two and met!
one one-hundredths miles an hour,
"Do%" said thc official. "What Cd W
aus do? Why, We We He PAUSED hell
lessly and then added, with Il 'nll'
Ten "Wcll, if you'l excuse the Sian, W
zee didn't do a thing to Tunkcy!'