The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-25
SUPERsTITIONS OF TRAINMEN.
Locomotives With Fatal Numbers-Blrd
In Cab WindOw-FOreiEn Lanterns.

Locomotives With Fatal Numbers-Bird
in y WindOw-FOreign Lanterns.
After all" said an old swftchman at
the Union Depot yesterday, to a Kansas
City Star man, there amt no bigger fool
than q railroad fool. There amt no fool
who'll stand to his foolishnees longer than
q railroad fool. But maybe he's got a
right to his funny ways. He's got a hard
game to battle.
Some folks laugh when you talk Of q
trainman's superstition about No. IS,
but faint no laughln' matter. You can
call him a fool II you want to, and he1l
not fight back when you do. He knows
what Is means. Why, look down in the
depot now; there's the Missouri, Kansas
and Texas fast mail, the Katy flyer. See
that number on that engine? Tain
IS, is it? Well, No. IS pulled that runnin'
train in and out Of Kansas City for months.
Now she's suddenly disappeared. Where
is she? I'll bet somethin's happened to
her-bet she's in the shops for repairs, or
else they can't get no one to pull her throttle.
Now over on the Belt line there's a 13 engine,
but she's harmless. There's a horseshoe
hung from her number-place by q rusty
nail.
Back in the winter of $780, said Camp
bell Bateman, train dispatcher at the Union
Depot, Il gave an order to a Missouri Pacific
train bound for Omaha. 1t was the thir-
tenth order issued that evening. Some
way or other, l didn't feel right when the
conductor came in and signed up. But l
gave him order No. 10 and went to work.
About half an hour later there came over
the wire, Pullman car on No. 0 robbed
by bandit. Notify detectives The train
was between Kansas City, Kan, and Near
man when the robber with a pistol had forced
the conductor to go through the Pullman
car and rouse the passengers. The first
thing l thought of was that order 49,
The robber thai night secured $50 in
cash and five watches. He shot once at a
passenger who refused tc be robbed, but
the bullet did no harm.
L. X. Carnes. superintendent Of Mis-
souri, Pacific terminals in Kansas City,
worked on the Ohio and Mississippi Rail
road in 1873. He was conductor on a train
to which engine No. Is vas assigned for
service. Henry Fowler was the engineer,
a very religious man. Elijah Morris was
the fireman, and about as profane a rail-
roader as ever shovelled coal into a frebox.
morris hated that 'ls' as bad as he
hated short pay Mr.. Carnes Faid. Why
some day she II pile us all in the ditch
Morris used to complain. On the. other
hand, Fowler, the engineer, was proud OF
her, and gave his 10 as much care as. he
gave his wife. Day by day, Morris's
hatred Of No is grew ~. We W. d USED = e : ACCUSE 0ns
day after an unusually tough lot OF work,
we pulled into Y~incennes, Ind, and ran
the engine to the roadhouse.. Fowler got
of and looked his 10 over with care. He
rubbed a little grease of here, a little dirt
there. He felt Of the boxes and the wedges.
| Morris stood at one side and watched. He
got hold OF a bottle of whiskey, too, and
took several drinks. Then he went back
to the engine, slipped into the cab' and
Look out, Henry! Here goes the last
He pulled the throttle wide open and
| leaned from the engine. The machine
gave q backward bound, and landed upside
down in the pit, at the rear OF the turn
table. Her smokestack was crushed, her
cab torn loose, one side rod was broken.
and she was truly wrecked. Morrls's
hatred had got the better Of him. The
little machine was given a different num-
Der when it was ready TO leave the repair
shops. And Morris? Well Morris hunted
another job, The superintendent sug-
gested it."
There's a hoodoo engine and a hoodoo
caboose on every. road, says 4. D. San
pany. you NAV think it a fool belief OF
trainmen, but it's not. There are engines
which seem perfectly made, which work
as smoothly as an engine on the Govern
as an Idaho broncho. And you II hear the
trainmen clss in long, deep, sincere ouss
words when they get this hoodoo engine
on their run. She'll run along as smooth
as a top for miles, and then she'll climb
the rails and SAL INTO tne diIcn' Sne
she is-the road tied up on her account
Put her back on the track and she'll dig
into the ditch again perhaps inside OF a
mile. And cabooses act the same. way.
You can hardly drag a trainman into a
caboose that's numbered 10
j. E.. Snedeker of Sedalia, trainmsster
on the Missouri Pacific Railway, recently
told Of a "hoodoo engine She's as nice
a machine as we have, he said to a friend,
shut she's a hoodoo. She'll climb the rails
on a piece of level track, and she'll climb
'em on a curve. We've examined her time
and again, There's nothing wrong with
her, but she simply won't work"
The engine was finally taken INTO the
shops and given an entire new set OF wheels.
It broke the hoodoo, and it is now in regu-
lar service. The old wheels and the rest
| of the engine simply couldn't get along to-
gether.
Enginemen are superstitious about birds
| nying in their cab windows. il more than
| one darts in while the train is in its flight
the enginemen watch more closely for fear
of an accident.
A little incident showing some OF the
humor in a switchman's foolish ways hap
pened in the office of W. NJ. Corbett. super
intendent Of the Western division OF the
Alton Railway. A few weeks aRo some
switchmen employed in the Missouri Paci-
fc yards in the East bottoms struck. The
matter was discussed one afternoon, and il
was laid on the shelf, TO be fully decided
the next evening. One of the other switch
men, who wished TO avoid a strike. went
to, Mr.. Corbett and asked for a position.
IF they go out" he slid, Il want to
work for the Alton. Tomorrow evening
they're going to swing a lantern against
the side OF a box car. II it sticks they won't
strike. If it don't stick they'll walk out.
How can you beat a game like that"
Evidently tho lantern did not stick, be-
cause they walked out.
"Trainmen have some queer ideos,' Mr.:
Corbett continued. go down in any OF
the railroad yards and you'l find the en-
ployees carrying foreign lanterns. II they
work for the Alton you'll find Burlington,
Wabash, Missouri Pacific and Rock Island
lanterns, az we'll as lanterns from n dozen
other roads. l don't know why it is, but
they don't like to carry a lantern issued
by the road they work for. It's good
luck they say to change. A s%witchman
will take a brand new, nicely polished Ian
tern and trade il for a dirty, greasy, bat
tered lamp Just because it's one from