The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-12-25
out ahead to protect us when crossed

out ahead to protect us when crossed
over.
l carried the man out half a mile,
gave him bucket of fire and told him
to burn fence rails or anything he
could get hold of to keep himself
warm, but under no circumstances to
desert his post until called in.
After a lot more whistling, fuming
and fussing l got the train backed
over, and we closed the cab tight and
ate our lunches. While gnawing at
the kiln dried boarding house sand
wiches and laughing at Harry's nom
sense about white or dark meat IT
came putting, along, almost noiselessly,
Hike polar bear towing a string of
icebergs.
had lost nearly a gauge of water
through the leaky fiues while lying
there. A broDmstick inspection showed
less than six inches in the tank, and
the nearest water plug was five miles
away. Again / worked the whistle
cord. After awhile Davis came ahead.
He was muftied up in all the old rags
the caboose lockers could furnish and
was a perambulating mountain Of
snow and ice. He was mad at last, as
mad as had been all night.
"Gosh almighty" he roared, so loud
that 1 heard him above the noise of
the gale Couldn't the fireman get
down an open the switch 'thout callin'
a man all the way up from the hind
end? Mebbe you think it's fun to
waller round in this snow"
l told him to cut the engine off and
hold everything on the eastbound track
till l got back from the Selden water
plug. AS we pulled over the switch
Harry shouted:
"Hey, Davisr'
Davis looked up, squirting comically
into the teeth of the storm. Harry
threw him kiss and yelled, "Turkey!'
The conductors. reply was inaudible,
but we knew what it was, the most
common expression in railroad use.
When we got back from the water
plug, 81, the mail, was waiting. We
followed her, getting good wheeling
until she got SO far ahead that the
snow drifted in behind her again. We
loaded the tender at the Bolton coal
platform, piling ON top big Jumps that
couldn't blow away. My watch drop
ped out of my pocket on the shovel.
threw it into the tender, and Harry
tossed heavy lump on top of it. After
we had found it and stepped back on
| the engine he asked, looking at the
| clock:
"Is that all 'tis-10:15?"
l looked at my watch-11:37 We
| had left the curtain up while coaling,
| and the engine clock, less than two feet
above the boiler, had frozen up and
| stopped.
During the next hour we nearly
stalled in big drifts twice. This set me
to thinking about train 10. She must
be nearly due. 1 looked at my watch
1877. 1t hadn't turned a wheel since
| that lump of coal hit it, and now had
no time on the engine.
Seeing me looking at my watch, Har-
| ry asked me if it was broken. told
him it was. "That's nothing" said he.
SOS the record" l tried to grin, but
| just then she pumped into a cut at the
foot of slight grade that was filled
| twenty feet deep with 'the beautiful"
had no longer any need to worry
about following trains. l was anchored
good and solid. 1 had full tank of
| coal. We wouldn't freeze, and there
| was water enough for long siege ex-
cept for those leaky fiues.
Engineers when snowbound must
oil hot I'M
| may proceed the moment the road is
opened. Otherwise expensive delays
will occur from thawing out, watering
and firing up dead engines in most in
convenient places. My great problem
was how to get water into the boiler.
The pumps worked only when the en-
gine ran. l gave her steam. If the
wheels would slip on the rails and
turn, could pump that way. She
might have been solid, jointless cast
ing for all the effect the steam had
| ON her.
Something had to be done, and quick
ly, for the water was leaking out of her
every minute, and l had only two
gauges in her when l stopped. We got
! the spare scoop shovel and sank shaft
through the snow ON the lee side of
her. Then we cleared the snow away
from under her and all about the
wheels and machinery. 1t had drifted
| a natural arch over her by this time,
so that it was quite warm down there
Harry brought down the hammer,
some wrenches and the torch and re-
ported barely one gauge of water in
the boiler. 1t was time indeed to hur-
ry.
1t was an awkward place to work,
and the smoke from the torch nearly
destroyed its usefulness. took down
the side rods that l might have but
| one pair of wheels to turn. l thereby
reduced the amount of friction to be
overcome by the use of steam, which
was water, the article / was interested
in economiZing.
pounded my thumb and cut off
joint of my left forefinger as the last
end of the last side rod unexpectedly
slipped clear. Harry chewed me to-
bacco poultice and tied it ON with
piece of rag torn from his jumper. We
left the rods in the snow, gave the
rails and tires a good oiling and hur-
ried up into the cab. There was a fut-
ter of water in the bottom gauge cock,
so slipped and pumped her until she
threw water out of the stack.
The water was squirting out of four
leaky hues in a way that would soon
set us to shoveling snow into the tank.