The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-12-27
(Chicago Inter-Ocean.)


Now, there's no use denying that it's
the third can that gets an engineer. -
said John Nolan. the Oldest engineer
in California as ne came out of the
round house Wiping oil from his hands.
Il have yet to know an engineer who
doesn't believe that, and I could tell
an day long instances to prove the cor
rectness Of the belief.
Then, too, there's no use denying
that most engineers can go through
any sort Of wreck and not get killed
until they have their third call. Take
the case Of Bill conner up on the Frisco
and Sacramento division last year
Bill was hauling a siX-car train on
which was a half ton Of giant powder
on the gOndOla car. A lot Of Mexican
track laborers were IN a car near the
gondola.
mo one ever knew how it happened,
but the dynamite ignited. Half the
Mexicans were blown to atoms and the
rest were mangIed.
The fireman on the engine with Bill
Conner had been IN two wrecks before.
he was blown oEer 100 yards away,
and probably never knew his fate.
The gondola was shivered to match
es. The rails were bent like hairpins.
and the whole train and locomotive
were in ruins.
when the wrecl1ing car came to
clear things up the tender was lacked
UP, and there, beneath a lot Of coal.
covered with blood, was Bill Conner,
unconscious and apparently breathing
his last. The doctor said life was a
matter Of only a few hours.
The railroad boys gathered about
Bill as he lay on the grass alongside
the track. He regained consciousness
and, getting his breath, managed to
say:
oh, III come through all right.
This is only the second CALL
The doctor shook his head, but
every railroad man there knew B;u
was right. Well. il took four months
Of nursing and a heap Of pluck on BilIs
part but he came out sound and well.
bill was transferred to the Portland
division. and had the softest and safest
job in his life He feared another and
third call. SO he sought s. soft a job
as possible and at much smaller pay.
Last spring he was drawing No.
passenger accommodation. lust outside
Of WOODBURY., when the connecting rod
on the engineers side Of the locomot-
i've snapped, and the loose end struck
through the cab. breaking Bills leg
and crushing his ankle.
ut didn't seem like such a serious
accident for railroad engineer, but
Bill said:
Boys, it's my third call. I'll make
powerful effort TO get around again,
but it looks bad to me-
In a month Bill died. Blood poison
ing set in and all sorts Of unusual com
piicatiOns came into the case"
DO you remember that case of young
Fred Fuller, out on the East FL Paso
divisiOn2" said an engineer at Nolan's
elbow THAT proves the sense of the
three times and out belief
zone night down there when the
40 hot 4
almost chop il. and the rain came down
in rivers. Fred Fuller's engine was TAX
ing a heavy curve out on the Texas
plains. and a drive wheel fiange broke
The engine jumped the track, and Fred
had a close shave from instant death
in the wreck.
'It was the first call, and, of course.
he survived. A few months in the hos
pital, and he was ready for an engine
again.
"He got light work about the EI Paso
yards and on daylight runs. About a
year after me wreck he began taking
regular night runs and appeared to be
as good an engineer as he ever was.
zone night ii happened that Fred
was put on the same train that he was
on when hurt. IL was noticed that he
was a little nervous, but no attention
was paid to this. The night out turned
20 be the same kind of one as that on
which he was hurt-dark and rainy.
'As the train neared the curve where
the first accident had occurred the fire.
man noticed Fred slack up his engine,
and at the same time he began to get
paler. AS they rounded the curve
where he had been ditched before
Fred uttered a Shrek and fell over in
a faint. The strain was too much for
him.
''He was taken Off his engine, this
frr1a IN Of q nd for n
couple Of years doing switch work in
the yards. As an engineer his first call
had ruined him for life. No amount Of
money could hire him to steer an en-
CINE around that curve again after
dark. and ne was known to be a man
OF great nerve, too"
IT fired for seven years for old Har-
vey Post, and he was the most dare
devil man at a trottle / ever knew,
until he had his second close call in a
railroad wreck" said a man in the
group. Harvey Post was Coils p.
Huntington's favOrite engineer. He
used to run from San Francisco to
Bakersfield.
Il have never known anyone with
so little fear and so much faith in fate
as Post. He believed that fate ruled
everything in an engineers life, and
that, do what he might. an engineer
would not die until his time had come.
He was the fastest locomotive runner
I ever knew.
Posts first call came along in the
summer OF 1881, when he was running
the Los Angeles express out OF Oak
land early in the afternoon Of a very
hot day. The great speed was easily
made.
About two miles south OF the Mer-
ced station he struck the double
track, and a little further on a freight
train going south on the opposite track
hove in sight running at a good speed.
When within 100 feet Of the freight
train Post saw a car In the middle Of
the long line OF freight cars leave the
rails and strike his track
1.-THE car struck so hard that &c boun-
ded back. Posts train shot by the de-
rallied car an instant afterward at the
rate Of forty miles an hour The place
at which the accident occurred was
near a culvert and steep embankment
some fifty feet high, and had he struck
the car q terrible wreck would have
resulted.
Il was on the freman's eide Of the To-
comotive, and was too paralyzed at the
prospect Of instant death 70 move.
much less speak. When we stopped at
MERGED old Harvey called across the /
cab to me:
say boy, that was a terrible close
call, wasn't it2 Guess no one aboard
the cars knows what a shave that was
from a whooping big wreck. That's
my first call
ct was along IN the winter OF 1882
SO that Post got his second call. He
was then pulling the Coast express
from San Jose to Frisco.
HE was on the north bound train
one dnw and was two miles from Ped