Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-03-22
ENGINEERS WARNING.
An Incident or Railroad Life in the
Upper Peninsular of
Michigan.

"Well, the idea is all right, and /
know an engineer up in northern Michi-
gan who could testify to this, for a day
light variation of it once saved him his
Job, said man more or less familiar
with upper peninsula raiiroading as he
laid down a paper containing an account
OF the successful trial of an electric head
light on the Milwaukee road-a device
that, IN addition to fully illuminating the
track for Il mile ahead on straight
| stretches, sends vertical shaft of light
up into the sky, making the presence of
Il tram known, in any region where there
are curves, long before an ordinary head
light could be seen. And before | get
down TO the story, | want to say that the
| test of this daylight smoke-cloud plan [
am going to tell you about was one of the
very few times when anybody ever got
ahead Of w. +. Fitch, who in working
| himself up to be general manager Of
transcontlnental line-the Duluth, South
Shore a. Atlantic-plcRed up about every
detail Of Failroading that man can
know.
1T was soon after Fitch was brought
from the Elkhorn line to become super
intendent of the Peninsula division of
the North Western" continued the mar
rator. One day he was out on the Me.
nominee River branch-just an engine
and coach-and they were making their
own time lodging in and out Of the
way of regular trains. Somewhere near
Lake Antoine the special pulled in on Il
siding to let an ore train pass. The side
track was not far from the foot of Il long
and steep hill, and to make the grade
more than ordinarily dangerous, there
was high bridge or trestle right at the
end of one of the many reverse curves.
Let's walk up to the bridge and see
how those fellows come down the grade,
said Fitch.
Il think it was Alex. Sutherland who
was with Fitch, and | guess he was a
roadmaster then; yes, it must have been
Sutherland, and he hadn't been long
enough off a foOtboard himself not to feel
some sympathy for an engineer. You
see, Sutherland, who, by the way, after
ward went with Fitch to the South
Shore, knew exactly how the engineers
We're in the habit of dropping over that
particular grade, and it seemed to be a
cinch that somebody was going to get
jacked-up that day. 1t was before the
advent of airbrakes for ore cars and il
was good deal of Il job to set hand
brakes on fOrty-hve or fifty of the four
wheeled 'jimmies' they used before the
double-truck, big-hopper cars became so
common Train crews as a rule didn't
wear out any brakesh0es on that hill,
despite cautionary rules about speed.
Sutherland suggested that it was q
hot day and Il pretty long walk. but
Fitch insisted, and away they went
They got TO the foot of the hill in ample
time, but strange to say, instead of the
reckless descent the superintendent eX.
pected-it would be unfair and unkind
to say hoped because Fitch wasn't
that kind of Il man-to see, the train
came over the grade under perfect con-
troll, every man at his post aud every
brakeshoe creaking
Wen, we didn't catch them this
time; let's go back said Fitch. IN bet
they don't come down like that always
still, on the other hand. don't think
they knew we We're here: do You ?
Sutherland didn't answer. lie was
too mystihed. But MS the pair turned to
retrace their steps to the special, Suth-
erland, old engineer that he was, saw
the explanation. The engineer ON the
special, knowing full well what was in
the wind, had, as soon as his superiors
had turned their backs and headed up
hill, dumped several shovels of wet coal
into the tirebox and then turned on the
'blower-the jet of steam used to stimu-
late the draft, you know-with the result
that n steady column of smoke was sent
straight up into the air, how high |
couldn't say, but high enough to catch
the eye of the engineer of the ore train
way up in the depths of the forest that
topped the hill.
"There could be but one explanation
for that cloud of smoke-a train at the
foot of the HILL hence the ore train en-
gincer. reluctant to even sound his whiS-
tie, had only to lean out of the cab win
dow and give a hand-signal. The brake
men scented danger and. as | said, they
had every brake set long before the dan
gerous part of the grade was reached
That's why I've got faith in this new
tangled headlight; that upward streak of
light may prevent many collision"