The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-02-07
NEED FOR PILOT ENGINEER.
"lu irainmen Tell of Chances Taken
by Those Grown Careless Through
Familiarity With Danger.
From the New York Times.

ny Those Grown Careless Throuph
Familiarity With Danger.
From the New York Times
The agitation for three men to an
engine" revived and strengthened by
the disaster near West6eld. on the
Central Railroad of New Jersey tracks.
finds Endorsement among railroad en-
ployes. They cannot be outspoken
publicly on a question which. though
1t affects them directly, is considered
by general managers and division
superintendents to be none of their
business. hut among themselves they
point out that almost every disastrous
collision in recent years i'm all human
probability would have been averted
mad the engineer had an assistant
lookout
Eneinemen, brakemen and conduc-
tors, homeward bound after their runs.
tell tales in the smoker of incidents Of
fallroadins that, had they been Wit
messed by passengers, would have in
duced nervous prosteation. That ia
millallty with ever prt sent peril which
breeds contempt in the most cautious
OF engineers is iustanced by these men
as the chief argument in favor of the
pan or having an assistant engineer.
though the danger of the man i'm con-
troll of the rushing machine falling
dead on going insane is gwen due
weight. These latter CONTINGENCIES.
they say, are eptional-the care
lesshess resulting from long associa-
tlon with DANCE" is ever present.
story illustrative of another source
OF neril. fortunately rare. was told the
other 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 man was 90
viously under the weather." and fell
as he descended from his cab to make
a last inspection of the slides and rods
For an instant he lay as if paralyzed
with his legs between the drivers, but
oply for an instant. The fireman. who
had been peering appre hensive.y up at
him from the after deck, was at his
side with a single bound, and struck
him -Niolent blow across the face
with his greasy cap.
Make out We're skylarking." he
said or our folks II notice you and
you'll lose your job"
Quickly he raised his mate to his
feet. Then he boosted him. laughing
and striking back up to the footboard.
Then he jammed him on his seat at
the lever, struck him one final blow,
ana agile as a cat climbed back to his
own place with broad grin on his
face. None of the witnesses who un-
derstood the incident interfered. and
two minutes later when the air whistle
sounded, the special rolled away on her
course to the mountains and the for
ests az though controlled by the clear
est brain and steadiest hand on the
whole 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 ii was a
long chance.
They told one story on one train Of
an engineer on another line who was
running at a fffty-second clip through
ten-mile stretch fOf forest with more
than dozen crowded cars when his
pipe went out His racing locomotive.
so the tale ran, was one of the newest
type, built to meet the requirements
of modern traffic. Her 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 ii. So the driver standa al alone
in 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 ona-protect-
ed by massive steel wind shield. lean
from tender to furnace on a narrow
hring deck set low down at the rear
of the whole machine
This engineer struck several matches
but he couldn't hold the fire. Then. SO
the story went, he climbed out of his
cab, back along the narrow running
board, through the wind shield to the
firing deck, lit his pipe, spoke to his
subordinate, and then slowly wendell
his way back to where he belonged. A
casual observer with frightened face
glued to the pane of the forward ear,
did not compute the time all this took
for he sWas glad only TO know that he
was alive. This story created not even
surprise in the little group that
heard it.
Wen. he couldn't have stopped if
he'd had to on that grade" was one
comment He'd "a been killed quicker
than anylcdy else" remarked Sec
ond listener
Another story dealing with an Incl
dent fraught with even great POSSIBLE
tiles was Of dark and dangerous
stretch of rails close to great ter
minus. 1t was guarded by every me-
chanical safeguard that ingenuity
could devise, for it's evident perils
nave Hdd costly demons tratiOn. Engin-
GERS there, it was whispered through
long immunity come to regard this as
about the safest part Of the whole
long line because of the appliance.
and at times. when they have a din
ner engagement or other personal rea-
son for hurrying away from their la
Dor, they have been known to leave
the train in charge of their fireman
and wash up at the tender tank. They
had bad wreck there once and it
cost much money and many human
lives.
a grizzled engineer who has spent
the greater part of his life at the lever
put the proposition this way:
by law it is required that every
ferrybOat shall carry two men I'm her
pilot house. The law is obeyed. too.
except i'm emergencies. River pilots
come cheaper than locomotive engin-
GERS, but is it snot strange that the
great transportation companies do not
find il to their own best interests, in
the light of so much past experience.
to urge the passage of a measure pro-
viding that on all fast passenger trains
there shall be pilot engineer? What
comparison can be drawn between the
horrible possibilities of a wild steam
boat and a runaway engine? The pilot
engineer would have nothing to do
with the operation of the locomotives
mechanism. His function would be
to watch the track, to report signals,
and to watch the other engineer
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