The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1907-07-20
OLD TIME
RAILROADS
Told by the Engineer.

fired for the men who did,
"Don't understand what wood up
means? Well, / guess there aren't so
very many who would now In the ola
DAYS of railroading, there was WOOD
pile every few miles along the road.
The engines used only wood In those
days, you know, and when they came
to one Of them the engineer and hre-
man would both climb down and MI
the tank with wood | guess that we
think ourselves worked to death II
we had to do a thing like that now.
Then the train would go along for
maybe ten miles more and the per
formance would be repeated. Sounds
funny. doesn't it?
Il tell you what made me THINK
that something ought to be said about
those times, and that was the death
of John Yerger, who was killed py
the trolley wire at the Erie station
Monday morning, just as he was start
ing out on his run. There are
mighty few Of the old timers left, and
fewer still in active service
"They made railroading what It IS
and il really seems as if there was
better stuff in them than you see
much of now. AS / said, / fired for
some of them, and ! know about the
differences then and now.
I'm the first place, besides the diff
ferences in fuel, there was about as
big a difference in pay. The engineer
got two dollars a day and the fireman
one dollar, and there was no such
thing as overtime. Your day ended
when you got to the end OF the road.
That is what it was when Yerger
started in; yes, and he fired wood
too.
"And then you couldn't get water
in the boiler unless the engine was
moving; there wasn't any such thlng
as an injector or inspirator in those
DAYS. There was a pump and it was
attached to the guides of the drivers,
SO unless they we're moving there was
no way to pump the water In. Now
less than 80 pounds of steam is need
ed to fill your boiler.
s,And in those days an engineer
was supposed to make all repairs on
the road.
"Of course, you couldn't expect
him to do it now, the machinery is
so much bigger. Why, take the
guides. He couldn't wind a piece OF
wire around them now if they broke
and keep on running. Now II any
thing happens to one side Of an en-
CINE all there is to do is to cut 1t out
and run light with the other. Every
locomotive is practically two en-
gines. you know, one on each side.
And in those days the fireman regu-
larly crawled under the engine and
packed the wheels. If anything hap
pened to them, and they got heated
up, why he was to blame. Now all
that is done in the shops.
"Of course if you put one of these
old single-t1ackers on a compound
he'd be lost, but they certainly knew
their engines Single-trackers? Why
all the railroads were single tracks
in those days, and there wasn't any
block system. The way they ran was
something like this. Two trains
would be scheduled to leave stations
about the same time, and half way
between the stations would be white
posts. When one train reached this
post it would wait half an hour on a
siding, and if at the end Of the 30
minutes the other had not showed up
why, she'd start up again.
Sometimes they'd get to the half
way post and not be able to stop be
cause the throttle had disconnected
They used the sliding throttle, and
when anything happened there was
no way of cutting off the steam
They'd fill the boiler up with water
and use the reserve until the trair
slackened up enough to let the brakes
work. Now they all have automatic
throttles, and steam is cut off the min
ute anything happens
"There weren't any safety devices
like the steel brake beam or the all
brake then. And the band brake:
were poor It wasn't a bit unusua
for one of those wood brake beams t
break and drcp down on the rail anC
wreck the train.
another thing that those old fel
lows did They made the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Engineers what it ii
now. conservative and respected b.
everyone. If a man doesn't belong t.
the brotherhood the officials of th'
road think that there must be some
thing wrong with him. And you neYe
heard Of the brotherheod's being in
row or foolish squabble. They started
1t and carried it through at a tim
when organizations We're in pretty bal
reputation, and when they deserved
to be. But they never let the brother
hood get like that
zone more thing about the old days
The way they ran treights was lik
this: An engine was rated as able t
pull say, Is cars. and pun 15 cars
had to whether the cars were loade'
tn 4u.4. 1,+e ,., Irs,ly NToxr, ~,