Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1906-06-07

miles up the ROAD from MS station, 4
and an employe was sent back to do
telegraphing.. He found the Office
closed. The hour for closing was nine
o'clock and it was now midnight Per-
haps this part would have been ex-
cused, but that night Tim happened to
be off to dance with crowd of
young people, There was an order
forbidding him to go to a dance when
off duty, and he was not supposed to
know when accidents were going to
happen, but he was held to be Grim
inally guilty and told to prepare for
decapitation.
Two days later the superintendent
arrived on special train. He was
/ showing committee of the Legislature
| over the road. On the same train was
telegraph operator who had come
down to take Tins place. The spe-
| cial had twenty minutes to wait that
| the run east might be clear, and the
superintendent personally saw the
| transfer of the station. Then he told
| Tim that he should never click an
instrument on the line again Tim
replied that it would be no loss to
him and few hot words passed.
! AS it happened Tim had received his
! pay the day before and was free to go
where he would. What he did was to
cross the tracks and take seat on
pile of ties and wonder whether he
should turn navy or farmer. The SUI
perintendent's train was to make
run of fifteen miles, sidetrack for
seven or eight minutes and then have
a clear run of sixty miles, Tim could
hear the new man clicking away after
the train had pulled out and he heard
the word come back that it had reach
ed R and had taken the side track.
Three minutes later he was on his
feet and all attention.
Darkness had fallen, and far up the
| track he could see locomotive head
! light According to arrangements
there should have been no following
train for half an hour. The headlight
was three miles off when sighted but
Tim knew by the humming of the rails
that it was a locomotive only and that
it was running at top notch.
He made dash for the station plat
form, hearing the call on the instru-
! ment as he did so, but he had not en-
tered the open door when the engine
whizzed by There was flash, a roar
and it was gone. He saw only one
! man who was flinging his arms about
as if shouting. AS Tim turned to the
new operator he saw that his face was
pale and he was in a collapse. His
hand was on the key bat he could not
work it. - 80
"Out of this, you spalpeen,' shouted
Tim as the frenzied operator at Collins
kept calling. Out of this, and let me
see what's the matter on the rails?''
Thirty seconds later he knew. 1t
was wild locomotive which had pass
ed him-one of the fastest engines on
the road and in charge of a crazy en-
gineer.
'Wild locomotive-keep Supe's train
on switch" were the words sent along
to Grafton, and, though steam raced
with them, electricity won the race
The Grafton operator had only a
minute to prepare, but that minute
was enough. He halted the switch
man just as he was about to open the
main line, and fifteen seconds later the
runaway came along. The great en-
gine rocked like ship in seaway
She seemed to gather herself and
! take mighty leap. 1t was like
blazing meteor flying along the rails
and men were pale for half an hour
after she had disappeared Had she
struck the special train of three cars
she would have ploughed her way tt
, the tender. -ss
: .1Wild engine-throw her off" wa:
Z telegraphed down to Stanton, and a.
} Stanton the f1ier left the main tracl
and went ploughing along and burs
: her boiler with a sound that was heart
for miles around. Back to Collins
while she was standing on the tracl
! ready to be coupled to a coming ex
press train, her engineer had got off {