The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-12-02
RAILROAD NEWS.
Switch Engine Stolen at lola
from Missouri Pacific.
Kidnapers Ran 1t to La Harpe
at Night.
DODGED LOCAL TRAIN.
Theft Seems to Have Been In
diligently Managed.
LODGED LOCAL TRAIN.
Reason for the Act Remains a
Mystery.

Some person or persons stole switch
engine number 918 from the yards of
the Missouri Pacific about $50 o'clock
Saturday night, says the lola Record.
and ran it a half mile east of La
Harpe and abandoned it. When found
about L O'Clock Sunday morning steam
was down and the fire was out. 1t
was standing on the Katy track and
the night crew of the Katy road pulled
the engine to lola. The road officials
have no clue to who did the Job nor do
they have any earthly idea why it was
done.
The Missouri Pacific maintains two
switch engines and two crews in lola.
One of them works at night and the
other one during the day. Saturday
night Engineer Grogan and Fireman
Beatty We're busy with the engine they
were to use that night fixing a brake
beam that had been giving them trou-
BILE. They had gone to work on the
engine Immediately after supper. While
the two men were working on 91S the
Watchmen were at work Coaling the
tender of their engine.
About 8 o'clock they found that they
needed some material and tools that
were kept at LnG freight mousse ING
road and they both started down to
the freight house to get it. When they
left they blocked the engine, as is their
custom when leaving an engine, and
when they returned their engine was
gone. The two Watchmen had seen the
engine leave the yards, noted that it
had been run over the blocks. which
they thought strange, but believing
that the engineer and fireman were
aboard they did not disturb them.
r-rNI1., III
half or three-quarters of an hour when
the engineer and foreman returned from
the freight house and they had had
time enough to have reached Gas City
or probably LaHarpe. Instead of in
stantly reporting the loss to the office
they walked east as far as possible in
the hope of getting some clue to the
missing engine. When they didn't see
anything of it. they returned to the
passenger station and asked that sta
lions along the line be called up and
notified of the loss and for them to be
on the lookout for the engine. lola is
the only station between here and Fort
Scott that has a regular night operator
and the Office had trouble in rousing
anyone. The east bound local had not
yet passed and the operator at Gas 1Cty
was up and answered that he had seen
the engine pass his station but had paid
no attention to it, thinking that it was
the regular night crew at work. The
only thing that attracted his attention
was that the firebox seemed to be turn
ed and the engine was scattering fire
along the route. He also noticed that
the headlight was not burning and he
thought this strange, but in the belief
that the regular train crew was run
ming it he thought they had a good
reason for their course.
And that was the last trace they
could get of the engine. At the same
time the west bound 'turn-around' was
coming to lola and they saw the engine
1zr1+ fob fH,
and allowed the train to pass all right
and they thought nothing of it until
they reached lola.
In the meantime the day crew had been
awakened and the agent of the Katy no
titled of the loss and asked to notify all
stations along his line to be on the look
out 1t was thought that the engine had
been switched to the Katy road when
they turned to go onto the cement track
The day crew took the engine from the
yards and started slowly east Wnlle pc
hind them came the local feeling its way
along. The tracks of the Pacific and the
Katy run side by side almost to Moran
and the tracks of the Katy could easily
be seen by the watchers on the Missouri
Pacific engine. They had passed through
La Harpe and were about half a mile
east of that town when they sighted the
missing engine standing on the fs,o h f5a
cific engine is a little wide for the Katy
track, and. fearing to cross over, they
asked the Katy crew to run out and maui
the dead engine to town.
There seems to he some queStlon apout
which way it was headed. Inc Pactlc
people do not agree about it. One says
the engine was headed west and the other
that the lever was reversed and that the
engine was headed east. 1t was headed
east when it left the yards here.
found thew could not discover. There are
no means of knowing. If it was headed
west It must have been run to Moran and
turned there. but that isn't likely The
fire was completely out and the water
was gone from the tender. The wonder is
that the engine wasn't blown up.
lola has recently had several robberies
that were bold ones, but the theft Of an
smashed in and a tray of watches taken
at 3 O'Clock one night and show case
was broken and goods taken in front Of
the Famous the busiest corner in town.
These robbers will have to take a back
seat to them who stole locomotive en-