Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1903-02-14
N~EED0FPIL0T ENGINEER
Views of Railroaders on Lesson
of Westheld Horror.
ExoITIEa INCIDENTS ON THE RAIL

Careless Through En familiarity With
Veterans opinson Of the PROPOSE
dion For Keeping Three Mon ON
locomotives.
The agitation for three men to an
engine" revived and strengthened by
the disaster near Westield. on the
Central Railroad OF New Jersey tracks,
finds Endorsement among railroad I'M
ployees, says the New York Times.
They canRot be outspokcn publicly on
a question which, though 1t affects
them directly, Is considered by general
managers and division sunerintendents
to be mono of their business. but among
themselves they point out that almost
every disastrous collision IN recent
years In an human probability would
have been avcrted had the engineer
had an assistant lockout.
E~ngiaenacn, hrakemen and conduct
ors, homeward bound after their runs,
tell tales Ia the smoker OF incidents OF
~railroading that had they been wit.
messed BY passengers would have III
duced nervous prostration. That fa.
mlliaiity with ever present peril which
breeds contempt III the most cautions
Ok engineers II instanced by these men
as the chief argument III favor Of the
plan Of having an assistant engineer,
though tile danger Of the III in con,
trol of the crushing machine falling
dead or going insane IL given due
weight. These latter contingencies,
they shy, are exceptional. The care
lessness resulting from long associa.
ton with danger Is ever present.
a story illustrative OF another source
of peril, fortunately rare, WIS told the
day after the recent wreck. II dealt
with one Of the most popular en-
gineers on a road leading from New
York. He was to take out a special
on which were several members of the
board of directors. The mai was OBJ
vlousiy under the weather. and fell
as be descended from his cab TO make
q last inspection Of the slides and rods.
For an instant be lay az IL paralyzed,
with his legs between the drivers, but
only for an instant. The fireman, who
had been peering a~pprehensively up at
him from the after deck, was at his
side with a single bound and struck
him q violent blow across the face
with his greasy cap.
make out we're skylarking,'' he
said, ''or our folks u notice you and
you'll lose your job"
Quickly lie raised his mate to his
feet. Then he boosted him, laughing
and striking back, NJ to the footboard
Then be jamned him on bis seat at the
lever, struck him one final blow and.
agile as a cat, climbed back 10 his own
place with a broad. grin on his face.
None Of the witnesses who understood
the incident interfered. and two min
utes later when the air whistle sound
ed the special rolled away on her
| course to the mountains and the for
ests as though controlled by the clear
est brain and steadiest hand on the
whole long line.
The engineer is dead. He did not
die that day, nor did any of those who
rode behind or before him suffer as a
result of his condition. But 1t was q
long chance.
They told one story on u train Of
an engineer on another line who was
running at d fifty second clip through
a ten mile stretch of forest with more
than q dozen crowded cars when his
pipe went out. His racing locomotive,
so the tale ran, was n of the newest
type, built to- meet the requirements Of
modern traffic. The firebox was the
full width Of the widest sleeping car,
so that the greatest volume and pres
sure Of steam could be developed. This
left no room for the crew TO stand be-
side 1t. So the driver stands all alone
Ia his cab just back OF the roaring
stack, where his view of the track is
of the best, and his stokers-for there
often must be more than o~ne-protect-
ed by a massive steel wind shield, leap
from tender to furnace ON a marrow
firing deck set low down at the rea q
the whole machine.
This engineer struck several matches
but he couldn't hold the IRE. linen. 50
the story went. he climbed out Of his
cab, back along the narrow running
board, through the wind shield 10 the
firing deck. lit his pipe, spoke to his
subordinate and then slowly wendcd
his way back to where he belonged. A
casual observer with frightened face
glued to The pans Of the forward car
did not compute the time all this took,
for he was glad only TO know that he
was alive. This story created not even
surprise III the little group that heard
Il.
A grizzlcd engineer who has spent
the greater part of bia life at the lever
put the proposition this way:
"By law il - required that every
ferryboat shall carry two men in her
pilothouse. TIE law is obeyed, too.
except In emergencies. River pilots