The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-07-26
A BROKEN DRIVING ROD.
The Disaster Most Dreaded by the Lo'
 conceive Engineer.

The Disaster Most Dreaded by the Lo.
 eometive Engineer.
 The close calls that whitsn the engi- neer's hair are mostly due to some one else's error or oversight which he can- not foresee or prevent. That many of these close calls do not result fatally is due to the engineers swift and sktllful meeting of the emergency.
 The great driving wheels on which most of the enormous weight on the To- comotive rests are connected by mas sive jointed bars of forged steel. The ends of these are attached to the wheels about halfway between the axis and circumference. 1t Is through these bars. called driving rods. that the wheels receive their impulse from the imprisoned steam. These rods weigh thousands of pounds each. Oc- casionally one of their fastenings will break and then every revolution of the wheel to which the other end is at- tached will send the rod swinging like titan's fail, beating down 300 strokes minute Nothing. can withstand these awful blows. They tear up the track below and shatter the engine above, especially the cab where rides the en- gineer. No disaster comes so unex- pectedly and Is so much dreaded as this. Almost invariably it happens when the engine is running at high speed. When a driver breaks 1t is a miracle if the men in the cab escape with their lives. If they do survive and by their heroism succeed in stop ping the train and avoiding a wreck despite the rain of blows from this huge fail of steel their act brings forth a greater measure of praise than al- most any other form of bravery that the railroad knows.
 Only the other day one of the drfv- ing rods of fast passenger locomotive broke while the train was running more than sixty miles an hour down the steep grades of Pickerel mountain. In an instant the whir1ing bar of steel had smashed the cab and broken the controlling mechanism, 50 that 1t was impossible to bring the train to stop by ordinary means. The great locomo- tive lunged forward like a runaway
 horse that had thrown its rider. In some way, however, Lutz, the engineer, had escaped injury. He crept to the opposite side of the cab and climbed out through the little window upon the boiler to try to reach some of the controlling apparatus from the outside
 He was working himself astride along the scorching boiler when suddenly the engine struck curve, which it took al terrific speed. The shock half threw the engineer from his perilous position but be saved himself by grasping the bell rope Then he worked himself down along the uninjured side of' the swaying locomotive to where he could open one of the principal steam valves A cloud of vapor rushed forth with a tremendous roar Although robbed o1 its power, the locomotive did not slack en speed until it reached the bottom o1 the grade Then little by little the thrashing of the great diving rod
 which was pounding the upper part o1 the engine to pieces, grew slower, ane
 finally it stopped. No one was killed or injured, and not passenger in the
 long train knew until it was over o1
 the danger that had been avoided SC
 narrowly. - Thaddeus S. Dayton fI Harper's Weekly.