The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-05-02
WHY is THE LOCOMOTIVE
ENGINEER A FATALIST?

Why should the locomotive engineer
be a fatalist?
I ave been asked the question time
and again, says a writer in the Chicago
Tribune. There is only one for tho
question. That is for the reason that
everything in the life of the engineer
points to the necessity for philosophy
If the engineer is to pursue his line of
work with a steady HAND and nerve. T,
Ordinarily when the layman stands
beside a great stationary steam engine
working under heavy pressure he is
startled al its power. In the hot, close
atmosphere of the machinery room,
filed with sliding Ristons, great fly
wheels and ru1nbling shafts whirlins
and flying overhead, he begins ton APP
preciate the latent power that is Gu
compassed within its mechanism, 1t
he will stop to consider that the loco
motive engine is moented to travel at
30, so or 20 miles an hour. while az the
anne time operating under a steam
pressure of 220 to 24o pounds to every
square inch of boiler surface. he may
get some idea of the position of the en-
CINE driver who holds the throttle. Lay
man that he is, he feels his insignih
canoe as compared to the giant boiler
which is anchored fast to it's founda-
tons OF stone. steel and cement far be-
low the surface. IF the design of that
boiler were to travel a mile a minute
while he was looking on his sense Of its D
power and insecurity would be greatly I
exaggerated.
Anything that might interfere with
the physical flight of this great boiler
through space is at once a double mems
ace to the engineer. He is responsible
for everything in the operation of this
huge boiler. while in it's working It's
| Who'll foundation changes with everXN
fraction of a second marked off by, hist
watch. Not the best stretch of traclcf
on his division is proved and safe. IN
open switch, a flaw in a rail. a careless
telegraph operator, a sudden washout
of bridge or culvert-any one of these
things may send the engine driver into
eternity without a moments warming.
It may be that his engine is a type !
having a driving rod plunging up and
down and forward and back squarelyf
under the seat which he must occupy
in holding the throttle hour after Jour.
The swapping of a crank pin on a great
driver may send the flying steel bar
crashing up through the engineers seat
and mean death in an instant.
Or flying at a mile a minute and
having to take for granted a great deal
concerning the condition of the waterf
in the boiler, the menace of the super-
heated steam itself ma be something
which he can only take for granted,
while he turns blindly to his "luck."
Feeding water into the locomotive
boiler through automatic injectors while
holding to a fast schedule leaves the
engineer dependent upon their work
ings. They may work or they may fail.
Low water in a boiler is one of the
greatest dangers that confront the engi-
neer, and if the condition shall escape
his attention for any reason and the
baking injectors suddenly pump cold
water to the s~uuerheated surfaces. the
likelihood of an explosion menaces him.
What a locomotive boiler exploding
cannot and may not do never has been
determined. A few weeks ago on one IT
the mountain divisions of the aBltimore
and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia the
boiler of a great freight engine was
pulling in on a sidetrack. 1t tore away
from the engine mountings and jumped
100 feet clear of a freight car nearby.
striking the ground the boiler rose
again for 200 feet and fell in a farm
yard, lifting a third time and clearing
the farmhouse into an orchard 500 feet
from the ruins Of the locomotive, among
which both engineer and fireman lay
dead.
Holding the throttle blindly and
blindly trusting to luck the ~engineer
moves out upon his run. his life in his
hands. Any one of a dozen conditions
may mean his death. He has no con-
troll over any of them. In a threatened
head-on collision he is at such a height
and moving at such speed as to make
jumping almost suicidal.
his only recourse is fatalism. He will
not get it" till his time comes"