The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-07-25
.HOBOKEN
TO DOVER
Newspaper Reporters DeScrip-
tiOn Of Curves from a Cab.

gineer flakes Up Time-DeIays
Often Caused by Fussy Train
Boarders and Good bye Kisses Oft
Repeated.
The railroad reporter of the New
ark Call writes entertainingly of a
recent run from Hoboken to Dover,
as follows:
All the little preliminaries to start
ing out on the climb from Hoboken to
the Dover hills have been completed.
The airbrakes are tested until they
sigh despondently, and big 9SO
moves a few feet forward, as if i'm
patient to be off, though really to
catch up the slack - as the engineer
puts it. That parsonage, the auto
crat of the train, leans far out of his
cab and counts the cars. Nine. .
he grumbles, land all chock- al block
to the door. Then, muttering
something about being an hour late
at Dover, he tells the fireman in the
rear cab of the big "culm- burner
that she will have to be watered
twice before the Port Murray Hill y
The down town boat is in, the last
old lady with her bundle has been put
aboad,, and old Sussex has found his
uncertain way to the smoking car
The hundreds of suburbanites dask
for seats by the windows and the
baggage for a weeks end is loaded
into the car. Two shrill whistles in
the cab, a wave of the worried con-
ductor's hand, and the start is made
amid the kissing of staam
The uninitiated speak of the train
as gliding" from the station, and
this is the effect felt in the coaches
themselves. With the engine it is
different. She trembles violently and
feels the very dust specks on the
track with the delicacy of pianist IS
fingers. Above the maze of inter
winding tracks in the terminal yards
semaphores drop their arms as if
pointing the way, and the engine
carefully picks her path, lodging a
drill engine or line of coaches until
the way is clear and the line signals
drop in uniform procession. The
painting of the automatic draught,
two to revolution of the driving
wheels, becomes so rapid that what
was at first a series of distinct
breathings IS now a hum.
The Bergen hill appears, and the
engineer pulls the whistle cord as the
rocking Locomotive dives into the
black of the tunnel. For an instant
all is dark, then far away little
half circular vista appears, with the
double span of bridges between the
tunnel mouth and the Hackensack
showing up clearly, in yellow light.
like view through the large end of
opera glasses. Every noise is now
two-fold in volume, while above
everything is the incessaut warning
clang of the bell. The Bergen tun-
mel is clear sailing, however, for
every inch of the rails is distinctly
seen. Speed is slackened, and the
short hiss, hiss of the airbrakes be-
gins. A grade crossing of another
railroad is ahead, and it is law that
a train shall be under control in
approaching one. Then the throttle
is opened out again, and 920 jumps
across the track and out upon the
stTaightaway stretch beyond the
river. This is chance to make up
time. The wind from off the salt
water whistles through the cab win
dow Sd fiercely that the door has to
be bolted shut. Through the seats
in the cab are on the side of the
boiler itself, it is chilly. Out on
the tracks the thermometer would
register 50 degrees or more. The
cinders too, are missing, for the
stack is nearly overhead. Little
drops of boiling hot water fly through
the air from the stop cocks, but
otherwise the men in the cab are
free from either smoke or cinders or
any of the ills that atfiict the unwary
by the open car windows.
At Newark a signal hangs red, but
it is only drill engine waiting on
the other side of Broad street to help
920 with her load of nine cars up
the Roseville hill Two of the five
minutes lost by a late ferryboat have
been made up and the hardest part
of the journey is yet to come, the
climb over the Orange mountains.
Yet there will be many stretches
where chances will be offered to
catch an odd minute of the time.
Newark has a large contribution to
the commuters world and the signal
to start is slow in coming. The cab
sizzles with heat now, in contrast to
the GOODNESS on the meadows. At
last the conductor gestioulates wildly,
920 gives q warning toot of the
whistle and tho drill engine answers
it. The two throttles are pulled open
and the thirteen n-mile climb to Sum-
NIT begins. The engines puff in
unison for a moment but the smaller
gear of the drill quickly destroys
the harmony. The big culm- burner
does not rock as she did on the
meadows, for the strong pull of her
helper has a steadying effect. At
the canal bridge the drill engine
gives shrek and disappears in a
cloud of dust, hurrying on to the
Montclair branch to get out of the
way. For an instant the semaphores
hesitate, then fall and the "oamel
back" 920 settles down to her work
of making up four minutes.
Far ahead gates at crossings are
lowered, and the tenderfoot" in the
cab wonders that he can see no train
approaching. Then he realizes that
1t is his train they are making ready
for and a bewildered feeling comes
over him. The ride is full of strange
sensations to the inexperienced one.
Something akin to horror comes
over him as a curve is approached.
There is no telling what sort OF
death is lurking behind the bend in
the road Perhaps an open switch,
or a freight train; the thought is not
comforting.
At Orange twenty seconds have
been made up, at South Orange seven