El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-11-23
THE COLLISION
(By Hans Herwig.)

|" HAT he had lost leg ani
through this accident his be-
- loved job, did not hurt old en-
gineer Ollzap's feelings nearly as much
as the fact that he was called coward
during the proceedings which followed
the accident. They said that like a
captain on his ship, it had been his
duty to stay on his engine until all
danger was past. He. on the other
hand, claimed that he had stayed by
his engine until he knew he could do
nothing more. How the catastrophe
happened he told anyone who cared to
listen to him.
I still remember the exact date. not
only because it was the worst day II
my life but also because my Louise,
my only child was born the day be-
fore. 1t was a very hard child birth,
and 1 breathed easier, when every
thing was over. My wife still fel;
very weak and I shall never forget
how 1 felt when 1 said goodbye "a
her and the baby after the day Uft
which had been granted me, because
of the event
1T was very easy service I had on
q
CINE at SchluchenfePs station. A very
harmless task with no risks whatever
no excitement and no chances of ac-
cident- 1 entered the roundhouse To
look for the old switch engine when
l was met by my fireman who told ME
that he had just seen in the order
book that we were to use the express
engine SIS, which happened TO be Off
service that day. The switch engine
l..
pair shop. Well, one may use an ex-
not, SO we walked over to SsS' and
looked it over. Everything was in or
der. My fireman oiled the moving
parts while 1 took a look at the fire.
When l opened the door thick cloud
OF yellow smoke struck my face. The
fireman at the roundhouse evidently
thought we were going on a long trip
with an express.
We'll, 1 thought, we won't need to
shovel any coal for two or three
hours. When we were ready l gave Z
long blast with the whistle for the
turn table to- notify the switchman
who was to turn us TO the right
track. But even here things did NOT
run smooth. The switchman was wol-
dering what had happened to 'SS3,'
made up his mind that we must be 90
10 10 express 10 am
turned us to a wrong track. We had
to explain matters to him before he
understood. Every switchman Ne
passed afterwards shouted to us we
We're on the wrong track and VIII n
We came TO the station the people did
not know what to do with US. all be-
cause we were using a big express en-
CINE instead of a. small switch engine
The very first order ran us into
trouble This trouble came throus n
the man with the red cap, the station
master He ordered us to run back
wards from the station some distance
UP the line pushing a boiler on a flat
car intended for a chemical factory.
and in front of this was another ca
loaded with strong explosives.
Whenever l see a stationmaste~
with red cap my heart almost stops
beating for it was one of these who
cut short my career as an engineer I've
never been in train since because
do not want TO see any of these men.
We were to push the dangerous car
slowly ahead of US up the line. / had
opened the throttle very little for al
express engine has not got long legs
for nothing. We had to run up the
lii,e on the left, that is to say the
wrong track, because the side trace
to the factory branches off from this