The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1902-12-27

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Limited.
The exciting experience Of riding in the
cab Of the Twentieth Century Limited af-
fcrds some interesting reading in the
Scientific American A most thrilling
part of the narrative describes the run from
Utica to Syracuse 1--WE were a trife
late in starting, and the engineer explained
that as it was election night, and he would
have to run dead slow through the
crowded streets of Syracuse, he would do
some fast running so as to have few min
utes in hand Here then was the chance
of lifetime-a seat in the most powerful
express engine in the world; heavy train
Of 300 tons behind it; an engineer vouched
for by the conductor as merry and fond
Of fast running stretch of down grade
Just few miles ahead for racetrack; and
a night of impenetrable darkness to lend
the last touch of weirdness to the trip.
We gathered way quickly to speed of a
mile minute, and before one had got his
nerves quite to the sticking point, the fire.
man shouted that we were on the down..
grade. The acceleration was rapid, and
our stop watch timing the fireman calling
off the mileposts) soon showed that we
were making eighty three miles an hour.
That six mile run by night was certainly
the most thrilling experience in bigh-speed
travel Of lifetime 10 the writer, who
was not by any means stranger to loco
motive riding, the experience was simply
serrifc-impossible Of adequate description
to the traveller whose gage of greater speed
is the slightly increased swaying Of Pull
man ear The sensations Of such ride
strike at every avenue to the emotions; ear,
eye, and touch are violently assailed. For
the ear there is clang and clash and roar,
making din 50 loud that one has toshout
into the ear to be heard; there is the con-
cussion Of the moving parts of the engine,
the jangling of metal against metal, the
crashing impact Of the driving wheels and
trailers upon the track-while above all is
the deep, sustained roar of the exhaust
from the smokestack. For the sense OF
touch there il the amazingly rough riding
Of the engine which, compared with
nicely poised Pullman car, is as the move
ment of a springless farm wagon to rub
Der tired carriage. The uneyenness Of the
track slight as it is, is but little absorbed
by the stiff locomotive springs, and when
the driving wheels and the massive reci-
procating parts side rods, connecting rods,
crossheads, pistons, weighing tons in the
aggregate threshing around or dart
ing to and fro to the tune of over 300
revolutions minute, the great mass of the
engine vibrates and lurches and rolls, until
one feels that the only logical outcome
would be for the structure to rend itself
into thousand fragments Then, for the
eye, there is the sense-at eighty miles an
hour by night-of incredible speed By
day, objects approach slowly out of far
perspective; but by night they rush at you
out Of the near darkness in one mad whirl
Of gghostly shapes, punctuated by horizon
tai; rocket like streaks of fire-the signals
and station lights.
ssTo the novice, the most thrilling mo-
ments come with the headlong rush through
a station yard, where the tail-lights of a
side tracked freight train glare with their
evil red eyes at you from the distance
surely they are on your own track-and
you sweep down upon mass of white lights,
redlights, headlights, whirling hand lamps,
dwarf signal lights below, and arc lights
above, with two or three switching loco
motives to heighten the crowded effect !
Clear track? Absurdly impossible. 1
tell you, gentle passenger lounging back
there in the cushioned security and CON-
fort Of Pullman, that should you sit here
just now with me at the very front end of
this roaring cataract Of steel and fire, and
realize that it is hurting you into that be-
wildering yard at over one hundred feet a
second, with stored up energy back of
a shell from 13-inch gun, to develop
which energy requires only misplaced
switch, a careless signalman, broken
rail or axle, you would understand how
sublime must be the faith of that quiet
man at the throttle, whose clean-cut pro-
file you can just see silhoutted against the
window of his cab, ia the material, the
men, and the management of that most
wonderful of modern creations, frst-class
trunk railroad
The perfect faith of the engineer in the
system was strikingly brought home on the
return trip from Chicago. A delay in
Cleveland had put the train twenty five
minutes late, and time was being made up
with powerful Prairie type six-coupled,
ten wheeled engine with 20x28-inch cyl
inders and boiler to match, and the en-
gineer congratulated US on the fact that
because of the delay we should see some
fast running. We had just snapped the
stop watch on three mile run at seventy
eight miles an hour, when Red shouted
the fireman, and with brakes hard down,
We pulled up at wayside station signal
stop for orders As we were starting, the
fireman courteously showed us the order,
which read that from So-and-so to So-and-
20 the east bound track was closed, and
east bound trains would use the west bound
track, No. rs (our train, to have right Of
way over all trains. s'Whatl Does this
mean that we shall run against the trafic?''
cit does. But, surely not at this
speed 7 Indeed, weshall : And indeed |
We did; for full out came the throttle, and
soon we were sweeping into darkness Con
the other fellows track, mind you) with
nothing between us and Heaven knows
what but the faithful watchfulness of a
train dispatcher, sitting in his Office hum
lred miles or more away. Sublime faith |
N marvellous system, we thougRefas we
settled down for the only uncoI Portable
quarter Of an hour of the whole trip. |
Twelve miles further on we passed the OBJ
struction-a disabled freight train-and |
switched back to our own track
Sleep the Best Brain Stimulant.