The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-12-27
ENGINEERS HAVE THREE CALLS
Superstition of the Kings of the Throttle Which Holds
That Death viii Remain Away Until Third Waning


could, therefore, afford to take some
chances.
I quit firing for Post after that
, accident at Redwood. Two calls inside
OF two years were too much for me
Post thought 10 was q great Joke.
de declared man could do anything
ne liked with a locomotive and not die
until faCe had 80 agreed. POSTS wife
( begged nm 10 give up engineering, or
at least take q yard locomotive. where
/ the danger was less. Post replied:
If can't run f1rst-class, III not run
Post said that his third cau would
( be his end, but he was dead sure that
che third call would not come until
fate said so. Well. fate claimed him
I about two years later.
lie had been working overtime for
several weeks, running between Frisco
and Santa Cruz. There was a lot Of
big sea shore excursions, and Post was
making money by extra work in haul
ing them.
He went without sleep. and nodding
for a 1Sment while ne was az the
throttle, he ran past a siding which
the train dispatcher had ordered him
TO take. A few seconds later his To-
conceive crashed full into an engine
pulling fast northbound freight
1T was horrible wreck. The freight
1ully. It didn't seem as If he could live
a day, but it was his first can. So he
ultimately got well.
Post was taken out OF the wreck
scalded about the legs. He had been
damned against the smokestack.
Every one of the railroad boys there
knew it was his third cali Death
claimed him an hour later
Speaking Of superstitions on a To-
connective" said Dan b. Miller. reminds
me- Of a time had when 7 was pulling
the California overland over the Tue
son and Yuma division. down in Ariz-
ona. What L am going to say proves
that there is something uncanny, some
thing human-like about a locomotive
that an engine can be your hoodoo or
your friend.
'One evening I got orders to take the
sunset Limited west bound out of Tue
son at midnight, Everything seemed
TO go wrong with the engine The
roundhouse bOstler had FORGOTTEN TO
set the oil valves properly, the fireman
was slower than mOlasses, and the bag-l
gagemen were woefully slow. Besides,
the dispatcher kept US in the station
half an hour past leaving time
Just as we were about to pull away
the conductor came and whispered in
my ear than one Of the railroad vice
presidents was back IN a Pullman on
the train. That was enough to make
any man in an engine cab want to do
his level best for his reputation.
Notwithstanding the dark night, the
danger Of track washouts, and the late
ness Of our departure, I made I'D nv
mind to make up time between Tucson
and A4aricOpa If the wheels STAYED on
the tracks and the trucks and cars held
together The fireman said he'd risk
anything to make time. So, two miles
out Of Tucson, I put on All the speed
the engine had.
But she didn't seem to move much
raster The steam ran down. 7 was
perspiring with anxiety. Right In the
midst Of it all the pumps began 20 act
wrong. One quit work altogether.
Il was beside myself. We began to
drop even our running time. We left
MaricOpa a little before daylight, an
hour and a half late.
AT the station the conductor came
TO the cab and said: Hope we will
get to Yuma in time for dinner and
1 was boiling at his sarcasm , Yuma
was a breakfast station, you know.
Things went worse. We lost time
all along. Three miles east Of Aztec
Springs I found the water was getting
low in the boiler. Something had to
be done Immediately with the pumps.
Tor there was long, heavy grade to
be climbed just ahead.
The conductor was well-nigh crazy
and / was in despair. We pulled into =.
sidetrack and 1 began examining the
pumps.
Suddenly there was a locomotive
shrek, and a special tourist train
bound for New Orleans came rolling.
at the rate Of forty miles an hour. down
the long grade toward US. All nv de-
spair turned into amazement. We had
miraculously escaped a head-on col.
hsion.
The telegraph operator at Afaricopa
had neglected to give US a meeting or
der for the special. But for our ballxy
engine we would have met that fast
train fun tilt. As frightfuI a wreck
as was ever known in the southwest
would have resulted.
Here is the strange part Of this ex-
perlence. I found nothing wrong with
the pumps. After the special had
passed and We pulled back to the main
track both pumps worked like a charm.
If a-Inagic wand had been waved over
the engine It could not have done finer
work We quickly had all the steam
we wanted, and in half an hour I'VE
were making record breaking speed
across the Arizona wastes. We reached
Yuma on the very second Of schedule
time"