The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-23
Cst Louis GIobe-Democrat)

| These figures that snow the compare |
| tive number of accidents on railroads |
/ in this country and in Europe make |
a pretty strong case against American
/ methods" remarked the red-headed !
man in the corner. looking up from his |
paper.
! That's what the matter with Han I
nah." said the passenger from Musko-
gee, with cheerful emphasis. land there
| ought to be law making these high (
financiers criminaIly responsible for
! wrecks that might be avoided by the
use of safety devices like they have
In England and Germany. l bet that
would bring them TO time"
We'll, doubt it," drawIed the stock
broker, blowing a cloud Of smoke to-
| ward the ceiling. You see, he went
on. there are two sides 10 this case,
as there are to every question. Rail-
road managers are just as anxious to
avoid accidents as you are A good
many people seem to doubt IT. but It's
a fact that nearly all of them are hui
man beings, and mighty few of them
are bloodthirsty. 1 used to know rail-
road president who had to go to bed
whenever he heard of a bad wreck on
his line, he'd be so upset by IT. There
are dozens of reasons why railroad COM
panies want to avoid accidents-laws
or no lawsuit the conditions in this
country and in Europe are different.
The lines over there are all compare
lively short and run through very popu
lous country This gives them much
heavier traffic than is possible on our
roads, and justifies expenditures for
, safety devices that would bankrupt
most American lines. For. after all,
l you'll have to recognize the fact that
r the primary object of railroad is prof.
. il. and ii can't do more to better its
service than its capital and income VIII
warrant
That's all true enough" said the re-
t tired trainmaSter, but no amount or
p money nor all the safety devices IN
. the world will ever put an end to ac-
cidents on railroads. AS long as they
J are run by men mistakes will be made
e that mechanical cOntrivances can
\ counterfeit. And, once in a while. a cir
| cumstaICe will develop that nobody
; could have foreseen and knock all the
well-laid plans for safety into a cooked
hat"
For instance?" suggested the red
headed man in the corner.
n Well" said the ex-trainmaster, "a
V case comes to my mind that is some
what to the point, though it wasn't
- an accident. and nobody was hurt, but
= il might have been a terrible tragedy.
C 1t shows, however, that there are some
q things no man can foresee. 1t was back
the plains of western Kansas and Ne
?. braska were few and far between. Even
e the sidetrackS were many miles apart
and telegraph stations were no closer
together than the needs of the serV-
u ice required. which wasn't very close
:. i'm those days. | was locomotive en-
10 gineer on the Union Pacific at that
time and had a passenger run from
Omaha to Cheyenne. We pulled out
lie of North Platte one bright spring day
l. about an hour behind time and | lei
"a the old machine out pretty lively In or
der to make what we had lost and gel
= into Cheyenne on time. The schedule
wasn't so fast as it is now, and there
,s was a bigger margin for. delays. bu
I it took pretty fast running to gain ar
hour in a 200-mile run. One thing OF
Df another held us back, though, unit
er we got to Julesburg. the Denver juno
=. ton. and we were still fifty minute;
OH the wrong side when we drew on
l" of there on the home stretch l gave
a. her all the steam she would carry, ant
SIS we were Just hitting the track in higl
places when l noticed. far off across
= the plains ahead of us, the smoke o
ST a locomotive coming in our direction
ty and coming fast, too. There was M
Ne regular train due in that vicinity. a
that time, and / had received no or
Nv ders in regard to a special or Worl
ne train. so I was puzzled. Still, there wa
de a siding over near the point where tn
Nd smoke was rising. and 1 thought tn
other fellow must be making for it.
. so 1 kept ON at a pretty stiff gait
d watching the distant smoke all tn
a time Pretty soon I became convince
he that she had passed the siding, an
o. from the way | was going and the wa
she was going it would be but fey
minutes before we would come TO
of gether and somebody would be huri
"a | had about eight coaches. besides tn
| baggage and express cars, swung on be
nc hind me, and every coach was crowd
as ed with passengers. The thought Q
his what would happen TO all those peopl
to unless something was done might
quick turned me cold, but it set m
Is to work Sooner than ] can say il
IL threw over the lever, turned on the san
Cd and whistled for brakes. and a warn
ing to the other train that ought
u have been heard back in Omaha.
of seemed like we never would stop. Ths
Die was before the days of air brakes, yo
20 know, and after you had shut off tn
steam and the boys behind had turne
he the hand brakes until the wheels WEI
as sliding. there was nothing to do bu
blow the whistle and wait And viii
49, you're waiting, and your train is &c
~ ing on. and the other train is comm
he your way at forty miles an hour, nev'
en- slowing a little bit and never givin
no any sign that it knows you are @
earth why, it's likely TO make you
little nervous; it did me, at any rat
And back in the cars, as soon as the
Jr | caught on to the situa tion, there Wa
90 | such a hullabaloo as never was hear
before on a railroad train, / suppos
gh for people don't usually have so niue
Did notice of a coming collision. 1t was a
ide the crew could do TO keep them fro
=, jumping right through the window
"9 and | never did understand why mo
zen of them didn't do it anyhow
is "Well. after so long time we d
re- get our old machine stopped. All
nd then there was a general exodus
pa ssengers. 1t wasn't any too 500
u either, for that fool locomotive W:
The only a mile away and wasn't even he
re. itating Ny business was. of cours
M to save the company's property, al
the only way to do it was to run Il
other way. So. as quickly as Dossibl
he | started my train back toward Omi
-, ba There didn't seem to be rnuf