The National tribune., 1901-10-17
Turnkey THE ENGINEER.
The Man Who Broke the Record for the West
Shore Road

In the October st. Nicholas Cleveland
Moffett gives an account of the breaking
of a record in running a train. The last
stage of the journey found the officials
behind schedule time. But it was made
up-by quiet man named Turnkey. Still
IN spite of these brave efforts, they pulled
out of Erie ID minutes late, and started
on the last relay with gloomy faces. II
was SO miles to Buffalo, the end of the
race, and they must be there by II 81 tc
WIN, which called for an average speed
of over 40 miles an hour, including slow.
downs. No train in the world had ever
approached such an average, and theil
own racing average since leaving Chicago
was much below it. So what hope was
there?
There was hope in a tall, sparely-built
man named Bill Turnkey, about whom no.
body knew much except that he was a
good engineer who ran rather clumsy
lO-wheel locomotive not considered very
desirable in n race. All the other locomo
tives 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 re-
fill, as the others had done. She had an
other advantage: that she carried Turkey
one of these men who rise up in sudden
emergencies and do things, whether they
are possible or not. 1t was not possible
everybody vowed, to reach Buffalo Greek
by IL 81. "All right" said Turnkey, quiet
ly, and then
Within 40 rods of the start he had his
engine going 30 miles an hour, and he
pressed her harder and harder until IL
miles out of Erie she struck an S0-mile
pace, and held it as far as BrOckton,
when she put forth all her strength, and
did a burst of five miles in three and a.
half minutes, one of these miles at the
rate of % IA miles an hour, as the
watches showed. And / never want any
more of that in mine," said the Superin-
tendent
The next town was Dunkirk, where a
local ordinance put a 10-milc limit on the
speed Of trains. Turnkey smiled as they
roared past the station at more than So
a crowd lined the tracks here, for the
telegraph had carried ahead the news of
a Embarrassing run. That crowd was only
a blur to staring, heightened eyes at the
car-windows. The officials were begin
ming to realize what kind of an engineer
they had ahead this time. Whsssss, How
they did run! Wahr! Wahrl barked the
little bridges, and were left behind,
H-o-o-oi beloved tunnel. And rip,
whrrr. as they slammed around a double
reverse curve with 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 was
getting little Over-zealOus. Much good
that did! Mr.. Turnkey had the bit in his
teeth now and was running the race alone.
At HOG they swept past Silver Creek
with % miles to go and % minutes to
make in it. Hurrah! They had made up
time enough to save themi
At 30 they passed Lake View.
Twelve miles more, and IL minutes"
yelled somebody, waving his hat.
''Toboggan-slide all the way" yelled
somebody else. We'll do it easy.
HOorayT
They passed Athol Springs at 11:24,
all mad with excitement. They had seven
minutes left for eight miles, and were
already.
We'll make it with q half a 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 26 seconds before 11:31,
and won the race by less than half a
minute, beating the New York Centrals
record per mile on the whole run by the
fraction of a second, and beating the
whole worlds record in the last relay by
several minutes, the figures standing
Turkeys igures-S6 miles from Erie to
Buffalo in 40 minutes and 46 seconds, or
an average speed of 72.91 miles an hour.
DO! said the official. What did we
do? Why, We We" He paused help
lessly, and then added, with a smile:
We'll, if you II excuse the slang, we didn't
10 thing to Tunkeym