Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-01-17
RIDE ON AN ENGINE.
Thrilling Experience in the Cab of Tween
tieth Century Limited's
Locomotive.

The exciting experience CT riding in the
cab of the Twentieth Century Limited af-
fOrds some interesting reading in the cur
rent transportation number of the Scien-
titic American. \ most thrilling part OF
the narrative describes the run from
Utica TO Syracuse. We were a trile
late III starting, and the engineer eX-
planned that as 1t 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 minutes in hand. Here then was
! the chance CT a lifetime-a seat in the
most powerful express engine in the
world; heavy train of 300 tons behind
1t; an engineer vouched for by the con
uuctor as 'nerVy and fond of fast run
ming; Il stretch of down-grade just
few miles ahead for race track: and
Il night of impenetrable darkness To lend
the last touch of werdness to the trim
| We gather way quickly to speed of a
mile minute and before anyone had got
his nerves quite to the sticking point the
fireman shouted that we We're on the
down grade. The acceleration was rap
id. and oar stop-watch tkning tthe fire
man calling off the mile postsl soon
showed that we were making 81 miles an
hour That sIX-mile run by night was
certainly the most thrilling experience in
I
WRITER, who was not by any means a
stranger to locomotive riding. the expert
ence was simply terriic-impoSsble of
adequate description the traveller whose
gage of greater speed is the slightly
increased SWaying of a Pullman car.
The sensations of such a ride strike ut
| every avenue to the emotions: ear eve,
and touch are violently assailed. For the
ear there is clang and clash and roar,
making 4 din so loud that one has to
shout into the ear TO be heard. there is
the conclusion of the moving parts of
the engine. the janglng Of metal against
metal the crashing impact Of the driv
ing wheels and trailcrs upon the track
while above all is the deep, sustained
roar of the exhaust from the smoke
stack. For the sense of touch there is
the amazingly rough riding OF the en-
gine. which, compared with a nicely
poised Pullman car, is as the movement
of a springless farm wagon to n rubber
tired carriage. The unevennesS of the
track. slight as it is, is but little alb
sorbed by the stiff locomotive springs,
and when the driving wheels and the
massive reciprocating parts-side rods,
connecting rods. crossroads. pistons,
weighing tons in the aggregate-are
threshing around or darling to and fro
to the tune of over 300 revolutions a
minute the great mass of the engine vi
brates 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 eve,
there is the SenSe-at eighty miles an
hour by night-of incredible speed. by
day. objects approach slowly out of a
far perspective; but by night they rush
at YOU out of the near darkness in one
mad whirl of ghostlv shapes, punctuated
by hOrizo ltal, roeket-likc s,reaks of fire
the signals and station lights.
ITO the novice, the most thrilling mo-
ments come with the headlong rush
through Il 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 swOop down
upon IA mass of white lights, red lights.
headlights. whirling hand lamps, dwarf
signal lights below, and are lights above,
with two or three switching locomotives
to heighten the crowded effect! Clear
track? Absurdly impossible. | tell you,
gentle passenger lOunging back there in
the cushioned security and comfort of a
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
chat hewildering yard M over 100 feet a
second, with a stOred-up energy back of
You equal to that of a shell from a 49,
inch gun. to develop which energy re-
lulIeS only Il HtlSpldttu SWITCH. 4 care
/ less sigma Imam, broken rail or axle. you
would understand how sublime must be
the faith of that quiet man at the
| throttle, whose clean-Cut profile you can
Just see silhouettcd against the window
Of his cab. in the material, the men. and
the management of that most wonderful
of modern creations, first-class trunk
railroad
The perfect faith of the engineer in
the system was strikingly brought home
on the return trip from Chicago. 4 de-
lay in Cleveland had put The train TWEEN
ty-tiye minutes late, and time was being
made up with q powerful Prairie type
siX-coupled. ten-wheeled engine with 20
X2S-inch cylinders and boiler TO match.
and the engineer congratulated us on the
fact that because Of the delay we should
see some fast running. We had just
snapped the stop-watch on n three-mile
run ut seventy-eght miles an hour. when
Red shouted the fireman. and with
brakes hard down, we pulled up ut q
wayside station signal stop for orders.
| As we were starting, the fireman cOur-
/ teously showed us the order. which read
/ that from SO-and-SO to So-and-so the
| eastbGund track was closed. and east
/ bound trains would use the wesf-hOuua
| track. No. 26 tour train 10 have right-Of-
way over all trains What, Docs this
| mean that we shall run against the traf-
/ dc:' 1T does But. surely. not n
/ this speed" Indeed we shall" And
+ indeed we did; for full ont came the
/ throttle. and soon We were sweeping into
darkness Ton the other fellows track,
mind vou) with nothing between US and
/ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT but the faithful
watchfulness Of a train dispatcher, sit-
ting in his office n hundred miles or more
away. Sublime faith IN marvellous sys-
TEN. we thought, as we settled down for
the only uncomfortable quarter of an
! hour Of the whole trip. Twelve miles
/ further on we passed the obstructioD-a
/ disabled freight train-and switched
back 10 our own track
pn;1irn VI = Ter L.. T..,nnrc