The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-23
LAST RUN or GOOD OLD 49,
A LOCOMOTIVE THAT NEVER DID
4 MEAN THING.

Delaware and Hudson Railroad held q
pretty solemn service the other day. They |
we're about to part with old engine lts, |
which for the past sixteen years has done
duty over the road between the ParloT
City and Albany. Not only the men who
had been intimately associated with the
fine old piece Of machinery, but everybody
that knew anything about her gathered
10 see her start out for the repair shops at
Oneonta.
The hostler had wiped her up till
every piece shone like glass and had been
made 10 look as pretty as possible.
Then a picture was taken Of her for the
local papers, 80 that the men might have
something to remember her by when she
was gone. And II anybody doubts that
men may come TO love a machine, he should
have been present when those employees
took their final farewell Of l4s as she rolled
out on the main track and steamed away
toward Oneonta.
Old 14s began service on a passenge
run from Binghamton to Oneopta. En-
gineer Samuel Wilcox. who has been on the
road for the past eighteen years, tells
wonderful tales about the engine in those
days.
over what she did when in her prime. You
would not get tired listening TO his stories,
for he knows Just how to tell them.
When the engine began TO get crippled
and lame from hard work climbing the
mountains through and over which the
Delaware and Hudson runs. they took her
OF and set her to work pushing other trains
up the terrible grades near Binghamton.
Everybody acquainted with the road knows
about those grades In the neighborhood
Of the tunnel
Here las worked for a long time, but
finally she was taken OF and put to work
in the Binghamton yards as switch en-
CINE. Now she has become 80 crippled up
that even that service seems too hard for
her so that when a Chicago man came
along and made an OFFER for her the officials
thought It best 10 let her 60. although the
price did seem low. And she must be
overhauled before she can 60 away West
10 finish up her work.
sShe can do more work now than half
the en- gines they make IN these days one
man said as he stood with his hands behind
his back watching the tender OF the engine
fading out down the line. They make
few such en- gines nowadays.
sITl bet there will be ten years Of good
service in l4s when they get her boilers
fixed up and some other things made good.
And only time can tell, but II ! am not mis-
taken the man that handle her out West
win think Just as much OF her as We do
They do tell some wonderful stories
about the achievements Of this old engine,
Some Of them may be true and some Of
them may be slightly imaginative. For
instance, Conductor NJ. J. Touhey says she
could climb right back to the track II
ever she got of, and go on to the end Of
her trip.
II will do to repeat, anyway.
One nasty night in the fall Of the year
while making one Of her runs at bad place
In the road, l4s made a slip and jumped
the rail
we all got down. the man said who
tells the story, 4supposing that we were in
for an all night job getting her back. Some
Of US stood around looking at her while the
hagmen were going out and the tools were
being got ready 70 run her back on the
rails.
we had cut her Oh from the rest Of the
train and nobody except the engineer was
on her. / remember some Of the men were
pretty cross. 1t was a stormy, bad night,
and the outlook wasn't very favorable. I
will admit.
sWe expected nothing but that we would
have TO send for help. We did not know
old i4s as well then as we did afterward
Don't you worry the engineer said
when he got sick and tired Of hearing US
find fault with her for playing us such q
mean trick She couldn't help leaving
the rail. Look at IL! You couldn't walk
1t straight yourself
And while we were flushing around, all
at once she gave a bound, and away
she went piing right up onto the track
again. Came awful near leaving the whole
gang OF US standing there looking after
her. But the engineer got her stopped after
a bit and brought her back TO hitch on the
rest Of the cars
And she never did a mean thing in all
her Life, another man said when the boys
had all had their laugh about this story.
sThey tell dreadful stories about most Of
the engines on the road-how they have
killed 90 many folks, and what mean things
they get into them sometimes.
mo hoodoo stories about 1873 Lots OF
rood ones, though-hoW she would get
right down to business when some poor
fellow had a sick friend somewhere and
WHhLGQ 70 kGN QulChf anu uuhNlo
like lightning TO get him home, / could
tell YOU a lot Of such stories.
And then, you know what awful grades
there are on the Delaware and Hudson
Many and many a train has lost her grip
and gone laundering down to death and
destruction. IL isn't so very long ago that
A freight got away over near BinEhamton
and ran down the hill, Did a pile Of dam
| age, too.
0sBut old i4s was too careful for any such
| thing a. that. She had grip on the rails
| lie IRON. Her feet never slipped 10 do any
harm. She would hold back like a mule
| on a steep road.
And Master E. Cline adds his testimony
| TO the universal verdict regarding the many
| virtues Of the old engine:
sShe would do more work after she was
taken Of the road and set to work in the
| yards here than any other engine we have
| All you had to do was to give her a gang
! that could keep up with her and she would
| make things hustle.
sStoutf Why, she was q perfect gianti
| And talk about engines being cold and
| bloodless and inhumanl Why, ils knows as
| much as any man, and has a good deal
more sense than lots Of men | know Of.
Careful, too, Of the lives Of the men who