The sun., 1905-12-17
THREE TRAINS IN A WRECK.
THE BIG RECORD MADE ny A
LITTLE RAILROAD.
OF Three Locomotives and Some Ninety
Cars, Only One Locomotive and Half
Dozen Cars Escaped Destruction In
Runaway Down q steep Mountain.

pened on any railroad in the United Stnteb,
or in the world, Tor that matter, took place
on the little Georges Creek and Cumber-
land Railroad that was bought the other
day by the Wabash interests, said re-
tired railroad engineer Though one OF
the smallest and least heard Of roads In
this country, yet In some ways 1t ID the
most remarkable.
THE whole road Is only forty-seven
miles long, but 1t Is the greatest coal carry
ing road in the world for its size, being
the only outlet for the great soft GOAL mines
at Homecoming and Mount Savage, Md,
right In the heart Of the Allegheny noun
tains. It's terminus Is Cumberland, Md,
where 1t connects with the Baltimore and
Ohio.
1T has the heaviest grades in the country,
| in places more than 200 feet to the mile.
| 1t always was the first road to buy the
biggest engines that came out. and 1t
needed them to climb the steep hills, but
it was in coming down that the real trouble
came, for the trains ran away nearly every
time they came over the mountains.
"In those days, when first started to
railroad there, air brakes were not known
on freight cars and an engineer had to
trust altogether to his brakemen to let him
down the steep places easy. As a rule
the brakemen were careless. 1t was on
account Of the lack Of brakes that the big
| wreck came about.
at took place shortly after the coming
| into use of the mogul engines-hogs, we
all called them, because they seemed to be
| able to pull all the cars you could hitch on
behind, At that time they were thought
| to be just about the limit for size.
AThey weighed about sixty tons and had
| four driving wheels on each side, with a
small pony wheel in 'front.' The first steam
| brake ever invented was fastened to each
| one of the hogs to help the engineers to
hold back their trains. The brake was
nothing more than wedge shaped piece Of
STEEL worked by steam, tbar was dropped
between the two middle drivers. The
middle drive wheels lad no f1angeS.
Il was running freight engine, and it
was the custom in the winter months for
the freight trains Of one convoy to wait for
| each other at the top of the steepest grade,
couple together, and tn n all run down the
hill in one train for better control One
| bitter cold night we had three trains coupled
together and my engine was on the front
train.
Each train had crew Of six men and
from twenty-five to thirty cars. The brake
men had lot OF trouble to get their brakes
to work right that night, and as a fact on
account Of the cold they didn't put down
as many as they ought.
We'll, before we got half way down the
hill we started to run away. All the en-
gincers whistled for brakes. but we might
as well have saved the steam By this
time we were going 30 fast and the cars
were tossing about and swaying 80 that 1t
was Just about as much as a mans life was
worth to make move, and the brakemen
hung on wherever they happened to be and
rooted that verything would turn out all
right
to the mile, and we swung around curves
all the way down the mountain as IL on
the wheels of one side. There was one
very sharp curve couple OF miles further
down that we feared more than all the rest
put together.
AS we got near this curve the engineer
of the middle engine played his last card
and skinned his engine-that is he re-
versed her and pulled the throttle wide
open. The two cylinder heads flew out
like shots from a gun and made noise
that could be heard way above the clatter
Of the runaway train.
Then the men began to jump. The
engineer and fireman of the middle engine
jumped, and soon were followed by the
two brakemen and the conductor of the
same train.
Then the engineer of the hind train
reversed his engine just az we started to
round the curve. The same thing hap
pened to his cylinders, as he might have
foreseen, for I'll bet there never was a
cylinder head yet made that could hold
up under that pressure.
Il didn't try to reverse my engine, as
knew it would be of no Use, and reckoned
that if we were lucky enough to stay on
the rails until we got to the foot Of the noun
tain that I might get the train under con-
troll.
AT this minute l thought of the new
steam brake, which had been all forgotten
in the excitement, and | don't suppose the
other engineers had remembered about 1t
at all.
in between the flying drivers the four heavy
wheels blocked together and the. whole
thing lifted about four inches off the rails
as prettily as anything you ever saw. That
just about scared out Of me what little life
there was left.
4We rounded the bad curve all right,
though I can't make out, to this day how
we ever stuck to the track. 1t seemed for
a minute as if the engine would climb right
over the rails and keep on through the
air straight over the deep valley that lay
just outside our track, sheer fall Of a
couple Of hundred feet.
"By this time, as we had come through
so many ticrlish places. without mishap,
we were beginning to think we might pull
through all right after all. But we had
another think. For just then an axle
broke on one of the cars about half way
back on my train and began to rip and
bang everything that got in it's way.
This made the men start to jump in
earnest, for all knew we were in for wreck.
1t was only a question OF time and place
when the car would leave the track. Some
of the men still stuck to the train. though,
taking the long chancs. To jump or not
to jump is a question that never has been
settled by railroaders. and don't think it
ever will be.
"As we expected the car with the broken
axle jumped the rails a quarter of a mile
further down the hill, and the rest Of the
engines and cars went after it like drove
OF sheep following their leader. They ran
along the track for short distance and
then the cars tumbled over a trestle hum
dred feet high one after the other until
there was nothing left on the rails but my
engine and half dozen cars behind. The
coupling pin had broken and kept us from
being pulled over with the rest Of the wreck,
"The two engines and eghty-odd cars
completely filed the ravine and came up
almost level with the trestle. Out Of the
eighteen men, six were killed outright and
eight were badly hurt. The only ones who
escaped were the fireman Of my engine, the
conductor and brakeman of our train, who