The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-02-24
RACE DOWN HILL
WITH DEATH BEHIND
Thrilling Run TO Escape CoI-
Iision With Cars
LOADED WITH POWDER
Engineer Tells Story of His Liveiest
Ride and Worst Scare-on Road
Out of Los Angeles to
Yuma.
LOADED WITH POWDER

| From the Los Angeles Times.
When engine men are off duty, the force
of habit takes them to the roundhouse;
and when a group of them is collected
/ there, railroading stories are sure to fol-
low. | have listened for hours to good
yarns there.
| One day, in the San Francisco round
house of the Southern Pacific company,
mention was made of a recent accident
which had been caused by the breaking
apart of freight train. This served as
reminder to the engineer from Arizona.
Taking a seat on the side rod of loco
motive, he began:
| II think the liveliest ride and the worst
scare | ever had was when l was running
| out of Los Angeles to Yuma, in the spring
of 80. The company was building the
road across Arizona then and we were
| hauling material to the front.
! We left Los Angeles one afternoon.
| with twenty-siX cars and u caboose. We
went out double-header, with two ten
| wheel engines. l was running the liz in
advance, and Billy Stewartson, with the
1873, was coupled in behind me.
Next to the engine were some long
| bridge timbers, extended over three fiat
cars. from which the brake STATS had to
| be taken. Then there were six cars load
| ed with redwood ties; then thirteen cars
| of steel rails. twenty tons to the car.
| These cars were all flats of course. Then
! came four box cars loaded with giant
| powder, to be used in some heavy work
at the front
Its a stiff pull most of the way from
Los Angeles to Cotton, and from there
| to San Gorgonio it's an upgrade of 100
feet to the mile. They gave us a third
engine from Cotton to the top of the
hill; and it was all the three ten-wheelers
could do to take that train up there.
1--WE stopped at San Gorgonio and cut
out the helper engine; and then, when ev
erybody was ready, we started down the
| hill.
From San Gorgonio it is nearly down.
grade to Indio, sixty miles; and for the
first thirty miles the grade runs from 125
! feet to seventy feet to the mile.
I'VE had a half Spanish boy called Kid
Vallejo breaking ahead He was a good
| one-as smart as a steel trap. The middle
| brakeman was rather light, and the hind
man was a big, thick-headed brute. who
had no 'savvy,' and never would know
| anything The conductor was slow,
easy-going chap
No Air Brakes.
There weren't any air brakes on
| freight trains then; nothing but hand
brakes. But we had air brakes on the
tenders ana q steam brake on the loco
motive drivers.
1T was about $50, on a bright moon
light night, when we started down the
grade. About a mile out l felt the train
jerk, and then we shot ahead lively. AS
looked back Billy footed off brakes
and began to work steam. l saw the two
brakemen swinging their lights and sig
mailing to go ahead
1T was so light that | could see that
| the hOOSp and the fDnr nj pnW1pr
had broken off, and were about ten car
lengths behind the rest of the train. The
chuckle-headed hind brakeman had
slapped up the caboose brake and snapped
the train apart, and we were running
down the grade in two pieces.
IF ever that loose rear section struck
| the forward one, the conclusion would be
sure to explode the giant powder, and
then there would be an explosion thai
would shake the EARTH and send the
whole of us to kingdom come.
I'VE pulled out to get away from it,
| and whistled and whistled for the caboose
| man to get out on the box cars and set
! some brakes; but he didn't show up, and
| in less than a mile we were running fifty
| miles an hour to keep out of the way of
| the rear section, and increasing rapidly
| every second.
| Il realized al once that we had got to
| check up soon, or the train would get
away with us and land everybody down
| in the canyon 1000 feet below. But what
| chance we going 10 get to check up?
| Just then we saw light come up on
| box cars, and knew that the caboose
| brakeman had got out at last Then we
| felt sure that he would stop that Sec
| ton and the thing for us TO do was to
| stop ourselves. / set my tender and driv-
| ing brakes. and started the sand running,
and Billy did the same with his engine.
all those pOWHrftll brakes
at once on the forward end just acted
| like humping post. The slack came
up against the engines with a bang, and
shifted the steel rails ahead SO that they
jammed every brake on the steel cars,
| and put them in such a state that they
| could not be used. There we were, flying
down a hundred-foot grade-two engines
and twenty-five heavy loaded cars-and
| only six brakes on the train.
kid Vallejo and his partner doubled
| on the brakes on the tie cars. and the
| first ming they did was to brake two
| chains. That left us only four brakes
not enough to stop us.
Sixty Miles an Hour.
1--WE shot by Bannings Station at the
! rate of sixty miles an hour, the fire flying
| from the driving wheels, and the tender
| brakes just burning up! The driving
! boxes were hot. and that stuck the
wedges so that the engine rode like an old
| car going over cobblestones.
ut shook the oil cans off the shelf to
| the deck and Jared out the cab lights.
| The coal was all shaken forward from
| the tender; vas pouring out of the
gangway,/ was foot deep on the
| deck.
| Look backward could see the
| ties w ..fng off the fiat cars sideways;
! they /struck the ground endwise every
| other minute, and went up in the air like