The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1902-01-02
ruNkE1 HE ENGINEER.
The Man Who Broke the Record for
the West Shore Road.

the West Shore Road.
In st. Nicholas Cleveland Monett
gives an account of the breaking OF q
record in running a train. The last
stage of the journey found the officials
behind schedule time. But 1t was made
up-by quiet man named Iunkey.
Still, in spite of these brave Efforts,
they pulled out of Erie 10 minutes late
and started on the last relay with
gloomy faces. 1t was elghty-six miles
10 Buffalo, the end of the race, and
they must be there by 11:3l TO win,
which called for an average speed OF
over seventy miles an hour, including
slow-downs. No train In the world had
ever approached such an average, and
their own racing average since leaving
Chicago was much below it. So what
hope was there?
There was hope in tall, sparely
built man named Bill Turnkey, about
whom nobody knew much except that
he was good engineer who ran n rath-
er clumsy ten-wheeled locomotive not
considered very desirable in race. All
the other locomotives had been eight
wheelers. Still, the new engine had
one advantages; she carried water
enough in her tank for the whole run,
and need not slow up to refill, as the
others had done. She had another ad-
vantage; that she carried Turnkey. one
of these men who rise up in sudden
emergencies and do things whether
they are possible or not. 1t was not
possible, everybody vowed, to reach
Buffalo Greek by 11:31. "All right, y
said Turnkey, quietly, and then \
Within forty rods of the start he had
his engine going thirty miles an hour,
and he pressed her harder and harder
until eleven miles out of Erie she struck
an eighty mile pace, and held 1t as far
as Brockton, when she put forth all her
strength, and did a burst of five miles
In 49, minutes, one of these miles at
the rate of 92A miles IN hour. as the
watches showed. And | never want
any more of that in NINE" said the
superintendent.
The next town was Dunkirk, where
a local ordinance put a 10-mile limit on
the speed of trains. Turnkey smiled as
they roared past the station at more
than so. A crowd lined the tracks
here, for the telegraph had carried
ahead the news of a halr-raising run.
That crowd was only blur to star
ing, frightened eyes at the car win
dows. The officials were beginning to
realize what kind of an engineer they
had ahead this time. Whisssss! How
they did rum Wahr! Wahr, barked
the little bridges, and were left behind
H-o-o-ol beloved tunnel And rip,
whrrr! as they slammed around a dou-
BILE reverse curve with vicious swing
that made the bolts rattle in the last
car. Men put their mouths to other
mems ears and tried to say that per-
haps Mr.. Turnkey was getting a little
oyer-zealous Much good that did! Mr..
Turnkey had the bit in his teeth now
and was running the race alone.
At HOG they swept past Silver Creek
with 20 miles to go and % minutes to
make 1t in. Hurrah! They had made
up time enough to save them!
At 11:20 they passed Lake View.
Twelve miles more. and II minutes, ="
yelled somebody, waving his hat.
''Toboggan slide all the way" yelled
somebody else. well do it easy.
Hoorayr
They passed Athol Springs at 11:2l,
all mad with excitement. They had
I minutes left for s miles. and were
cheering already.
well make it with half a minute to
spare" said the only man in the pri-
vate car who was reasonably cool. He
was four seconds out of the way, for
they crossed the line 20 seconds before
11:31, and won the race by less than
half a minute, beating the New York
CentraPs record per mile on the whole
run by the fraction of second, and
beating the whole worlds record in the
last relay by several minutes, the fig
dres standing Turkeys fgures-S6
miles from Erie to Buffalo in 20 min
utes and 4G seconds. or an average
speed of 1891 miles an hour.
"DoY' said the official. what did we
do? why, we've" He paused
and then added. with a
smile: "Well, if you'll excuse the slang,
we didn't do a thing to Turkey"