Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-23
PIONEER RAILR0ADER
TELLS OF DITcHING OF DIX
How Old Locomotive Came to Grief
in Duck Creek
in 1853.

DO | remember the ditching of the
'Dix?' | should say l do said Mark
McGrath. the fiagman of the Fifth and
Warren street crossing. in Davenport.
1T happened just before | went to
work for the NJ. & NJ. railroad, which
was then getting ready to be absorb
ed by the Chicago & Rock Island Rail-
way company.
The Dix was named after John \.
Dix. one of the magnates of the road.
and she was the locomotive which was
hauled over the river on the ice in the
winter of 1855. II was at that time
the Tony came over the ice. BY the
Tony | mean the locomotive Antoine
LeClaire. named after our big and good
man here. The Tony was hauled
across the river on barges while the old
wooden bridge was building.
Those were good engines. but along
side the big 14OO's and 1GO0's we have
now they look like toy locomotives we
are now buying for our children.
The Dix left her roundhouse where
old Pat Summers was hostler in fine
shape one day in the summer of 1868
and after taking her train started out
up the Dutchman's grade. 1t was much
sleeper than now and the locomotives
had to pun vigorously TO make the
climb.
Engineer Morgan and Fireman Gil
len were in the cab as the Dix pulled
out. Everything went well until Duck
creek bridge was reached. The boiler
went into the air and then came down
he lie ba
were ditched with poor Morgan and Gil
len beneath them.
1T is a coincidence that two lives
were lost in that accident, the same
number of victims who lost theirs III
last Sunday nights explosion.
THE Dix was scrap iron. Her
sepulchre was the bed of Duck creek.
The Tony went the same way. In 1868
after having rendered service for
nearly eight years she blew up her
boiler at Durant, a station about ten
miles west of where poor Calhoun and
Pinney's engine went to smash. In the
wreck of the Tony the fireman named
Smith was caught and crippled for life,
but the engineer escaped.
Another explosion was that of the
CURED in the roundhouse here in 1864
Pat Summers was in the roundhouse at
the time and miraculously escaped I'M
hurt. John Annable was also there but
escaped providentially.
I'm 1857 the locomotive boiler used
as a stationary engine boiler for the
motive power in the shops. also blew
up killing two persons and damaging
property TO the value of 81, 900 or more
when | compare the giant locomo-
tives today with the old Dix Tony or
Davenport or the old Samson and
the silver engine once such a source
OF pride for DayenporterS, | cannot but
shudder 10 think of the long chances
the engineer and firemen must take in
jumping when they are obliged to leave
them in a hurry. Some OF the cabs are
eight and nine feet from the rail, and
leap from one of them in the dark,
from rapidly moving locomotive is
hazard which menaces life and limb
Il hear that the crown sheet of the
locomotive which exploded Sunday
night showed evidences of crystalliZa-
ton. | believe the explosion was due
to that condition of the boiler which
made it lack the necessary tension.
In the roundhouses the hostlers
have habit of using only a little
water when they first kindle the fire
to get up steam. BY an oversight, it is
easy to see how the boiler can be burn
ed. and thus crystallized rendering its
tension such as to- be unable TO with
stand the 200 pounds pressure which
the big engines usually carry
Mr.. McGrath was for years Il
fireman on the Rock Island road. He
is still in the employ of the road as
brakeman on Fifth and Warren streets.
| When you're broke the girls Will shy
| They turn and fly as you come nigh,
Brace up old man. show some pluck.
| Take Rocky Mountain Tea: twill
Il Il