The Indianapolis journal., 1903-02-22
NERVE IN AN ENGINE CAB.
Lost Sometimes for Trivial Reasons;
Even for Reversed Signals.
New York Sun.

Many old locomotive engineers thought,
before the actual cause of the New Jersey
Central Railroad wreck became known,
that they could explain why DAVIS. the
tributed his error to loss of nerve.
This comes one time or another to every
man who handles throttle said an en-
gineer of years experience. Nobody can
explain IL, and nobody can tell when ii will
occur. The slightest unusual thing on a
run will sometimes cause it-even a thing
so slight as finding signals out of their
usual condition.
Il have known experienced engineers on
a generally clear run TO pull up their trains
before reversed signals, so overcome by the
unusual occurrence that they have all but
tainted and have dropped to their seats
pale and covered with cold sweat. Once
when we had been blocked this way at a
place where / had never before known one
fast train TO stop, my engineer lost his
nerve so badly that he could not close the
throttle, and we would have been In
wreck If / had not jumped up and shut
her off.
/ remember when 1 was running a
night flyer on stretch where / knew
had clear track for five miles.
Il was going at the rate of sixty miles
an hour on a slight down grade when 1 saw
a light In flash and so clearly as though
IT were broad daylight / thought / could
toward me in my track. could see even
the engineer, a friend of mine, leaning out
of the cab window, and / could hear him,
an absurd thing, shout to me to shut off.
Gould l shut off? My arm seemed to be
paralyzed. / could not reach the throttle,
though my life and the lives of all the peo-
pie in my train seemed to depend upon it.
/ braced myself for the shock and ran past
q man walking beside the track carrying
a lantern l told nobody about my scare,
of course, but it was two days before got
ANY engineer can tell stories about
momentary loss of nerve. The nerve of
an engineer needs mental bracing all the
time, especially If he runs an express. We
are on a strain from the moment we start
our engines until we leave them at the
end of the run.
''The machine is throbbing, jolting and
swaying under US all the time; we are con-
stantly on the alert for any obstruction on
the track, and our ears are strained to
detect any sound that would indicate a
loose Joint, bolt or nut.
so intense are our nerves all the time
that / have known driver to be actually
incapa citated for week because he hit a
dog, and l have heard competent engineers
whose nerve nobody ever questioned beg
to be let off fast but unusual run be-
cause they didn't feel up to it.
There are engineers to-day who are
would throw up their jobs rather than re-
sumo their old places on flyers. They have
seen ths men, HfrHe st young cry like When
they know they were no longer fit to run
fast train.
There is only one man In the business
who has the reputation of never losing his
nerve. He is John Kinsilla. who takes No.
i on the Erie from Port Jervis to Susque-
hanna.
1T was his train that ran into big rock
lust above Shohola in 1888 and went tum-
bling down a sixty-foot bank TO the edge of
the Delaware river Many lives were lost
there and Johns fireman. pinned by the
legs under his engine. was roasted before
his eyes Johns own foot was caught, but
his shoes were not buttoned. and he man.
aged to wriggle his foot clear, leaving the
shoe behind.
He stood by his fireman. talked with
him as the flames were creeping nearer.
gave him water. took his last message for
his wife and saw him burn TO death
Johns left foot was a little lame for a
long while after that but he showed up
the next day. cool as cucumber. and in
sisted on taking his usual run. He says
that he has never lost his nerve for an
instant. although he has had half a dozen
accidents and / believe him.