The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-07
RUNNING FAST TRAINS.
4 TALK WITH AN ENGINEER
 JVHO IS FAMOUS
For the Speed He Makes-Re is One of the Oldest Engineers On the Road.

l
 the Oldest Engineers on the Road.
 Just now the interest of the travel ing public seems to center in fast time, and in answer to it's demand all of the great railroad lines are putting on fly | ing trains Within the past two weeks this has been done by the Pennsylvania, l the Lake Shore, the Vandalia and the Big Four The time of the flyers on all of these roads is exceptionally fast but the best time is probably made by the Big Four between here and Cincinnati, the road connecting these two points, as engineers agree, being one of the finest stretches of track in the country The train that makes this fast time comes into Indianapolis every day and is known officially as train No. il.
 The exceptional time that No. il makes is largely due to the efforts and skill of William Nagle, the engineer, who is one of the oldest and most trust ed employees of the road. He has had charge of an engine for over twenty seven years, during which time he has made some records that will go down in railroad history. He has gained such a reputation as a fast runner that to railroad men everywhere he is known as the wild Dutchman," which name might lead people to think that he is either careless or reckless, but this is far from being true, because during all his service he has never had a wreck and is one of the most conservative of men. Before Nagle ran on the Cincin- l ~p Ia
 tween here and Kankakee It was while making this run that he made one of the fastest trips, going the entire dis | tance, which is 172 miles, in two hours and thirty-five minutes, including ten stops and a number of slowdowns that took up the entire thirty-flve minutes. This made him go at the rate of eighty | six miles an hour over the whole way Another record he made that railroad men always talk about when fast time is referred to was two years ago, when 1 he went from hera to Cincinnati in an hour and fifty-f0ur minutes, with an or- dinary train, This was on a special oc- casion, however, and there were no stops. The fastest single mile he ever went was in forty-two seconds, which l 10 dI tfS latc OL ItI4Sly ltlleS all nOuT. | MT Nagle was asked If there was any certain trick in the running of fast trains, and replied:
 There is no difference in the running of the fast train and the slow one | There is one thing that a man should remember, though, and that is not to get nervous, no matter what turns up before him. The engineers who run the | flyers must also be men of quick decis- | ion, because a little wavering on their part might cause bad wreck If 1t is the engineers opinion that the train i should be stopped he should do so at | once, but if he thinks he can get through, then all right-throw her open and go through, but don't hesitate. The success in running fast trains lies in the fact of keeping your mind on what you are doing and not getting excited when something turns up unexpectedly before you. An engineer must always be on his guard, for going over the ground at sixty or seventy miles an hour he must act quickly when the time comes, as there is no chance to consider what is | best to do.
 1 "The engine I run makes from ten to | twelve miles faster time than is ordin- arily run. To be able to do this I have got to know every foot of the road be- tween here and Cincinnati For in know ing the track I can tell just where tbs long stretches of level road are before I get to them, and in this way can cal- culate just where I can make up any little time that might have lost at the beginning of the trip. In some places in making a run I will go away ahead of my schedule, but what have gained here I will lose on some other part of the road that is not so good. An in- stance of this kind happens coming l from Cincinnati here. For about forty miles out the road is rather rough, and on account of the grades-for the small est of them will take away from an en- gine's speed-it is hard to make any l headway. but after this there is slight
 incline given to the read all the rest of the way, and as there are only two stops, the entire distance, which is sixty-nine miles, is made in few min utes over an hour. In making fast runs it is in the stops and slowdowns where an engine loses time. You take, for in- stance, a train that has to be brought | to a dead standstill; it will require as high as ten minutes before it can be got well under way again. and when you are going at sixty miles an hour ten minutes counts a great deal.
 ''It seems singular. but to a person who is associated with the engines all the time they almost seem alive. This is on account of the sensitive machin- cry about them. You can't any more | say what kind of time an engine is go- ing to make when you start out with 1t than you can tell how racehorse is go- ing to run. Some days when you take the machine out it will worry along, and you can't get it to running right dur ing the whole trip, and then at other times it will start off perfectly smooth and you will have no trouble whatever. The weather has much to do with the way an engine works. When the at- mosphere is damp and cold and the oil is thick the machinery works much harder than in cry warm weather when the oil remains thin. Then there is the difference in coal; some engines will burn one kind better than another. And the way the wind blows also has much