Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-12-14

SION seemed an easy one I tried the
air and found I didn't have any re-
yersed the engine, but we kept on gong
! down the grade The firemen ana brake
men. knowing what lay ahead or US,
iu,nDed / don't blame them. either
"\Vhen the switch came in sight, the
other train was there. Her engine was
close I'D to the west clearing post and her
ca boose was hanging over the east. SWITCH
[ knew if I didn't stop I'd side-sWlpe that
caboose and perhaps. throw mE.~enSlne
| into the ditch. had thin cap on my
head and could almost feel my HAIR MT
ing it up 1 threw on sand and worked
the reverse lever for everything that was
/ in it. I stopped with my engine pilot
right up to the clearing post.
"In that willoe nlileI never thought OF
jumping or Of doing anything else but
stopping that engine. And l stopped
it,
The story of the death Of Engineer
FISHER Conductor Whitaker Baggage
man Thompson and Expressman Shan
non, in a landslide near Lynchburg a
vear-ago, is a familiar one. The men
were working to get their train from the
danger Of the weakening cliff, when
great mass of earth and crock fell upon
them. Whitaker was thrown into the
riEsr which was then at flood. and was
swept out of reach by the swift current.
Fishers legs were caught by the debris.
and he lay with his comrades holding his
head above water, while the river, rising
slowly, crept upward and upward until it
covered his head and drowned him.
Shannon and Thompson were crushed
to death
+ An old railroader told me q String of
stories one night last week; and although
they We're Of service a road distant
many miles from Richmond, they go to
how
through. And, be it remembered. this
was before the days of the mighty air
brake In those times,-and on many
roads the same holds good to-day--an en-
gineer had to whistle for brakes, and the
bra1iemen would tug away at the iron
wheels at-the end -of-the-- roof until
the train stopped. Nowadays the engine
man reaches out his hand and pulls a
little brass lever The off: rishes out
with a hollow missing sound. and the
train slows down. easily or With. a sudden
jerk. as the man in the cab Wills it.
ITO return to the narrs :Ve:y This hap
pened on the Erie road neaE Avon. N. ".
something over thirty years ago. From
Avon east for thirty: miles was d stuff up
grade, with several bad reverse curves. in
some respects-such a piece of track as,
many stretch along the James River
Division. ( F'Teights We're USUALLY pulled
up this grade in sections, the train en-
CINE carrying;up one part, and the a.lios-
tier or shifting engine, pulling up the
other. Sometimes, on the down run. the
.hostler;' would hayeora .ight7run of
freight ITO bring ba OK with him. !. 4.
One night tie west-bound express was
very 1ate.i An extra freight took the
time. and rights of the passenger train
and. under its adopted title of No To-
started down the hill or.4Aven.s The Avon
sdspa tcher called .Livonia+-eleven miles to
tlleseast. for a1repogt on. MOI as ans
yer came baclS No. L broken, III, three
sections. just passed at fifty miles san
hour, No brakeman-on middle section
-The-three- pieces of -that-traineane
gether, five miles past 1I,ivonia. II didn't
ask what, became of .then1:..it wasn't nee,
essa ry. ,,,f>s ir,,r. ,.e[. ,.s.>
Freight and local ira ms ,ysrS; frequeatly
break in two comm 81 over the mountains
Of virginia md West Virginia; ana the.
men,in the Chesapeake and. Ohio and N or
folk ana Western -ssryiceT can tell plenty
OF stories, of,wild rides down the slape.of
the Ridge, Usua llyr The parting OF .tfle.s
traAi lets ont the airsand throws on the.
brake s but this go Cd fortune doesn,t az
WAITS Hold .ti5E nc ~ ~
WHILE the dangers Of klife.qn the. engine
are, moro consplcuous than those in any.
other branch Of the service they are not
the: only dangers. yerys:far from 1T.