Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-03
BARELY ESCAPES
A FREIGHT TRAIN
Crew of Under Three Flags Auto
Crosses Railway Bridge
on Short Cut
HAS ROUGH GOING IN MISSOURI
Conductor Ready to Flag Cars So
That Machine Could Take
the TreStIe
HAS ROUGH GOING IN MISSOURI

George Meinzinger and Paul Bruske,
the present crew of the Flanders 20
"Under Three Flags" car, will treasure
long in memory the exciting escapades
with which they celebrated June Il.
That part of their trip found them In
the center OF Missouri, travelling a
road covered with boulders, scanned
with deep ruts and bristling with
stumps. They had done seventy live
miles of this sort OF going and mad
been climbing q series of hills, WITH
out corresponding declines, When' al
most without warning, they came CUT
on top of a precipice overlooking the
Gasconade rapids, which doomed along
below them fully 400 feet.
.Meinzinger locked his foot brake,
shut off his engine, took a firm hold on
his emergency brake and started down
winding sort of trail. Slowly ana
steadily the car slid along, the brakes
holding nobly. Twice the decllVity was
so steep that the car seemed to ver1t-
ably stand on end. Locked wheels
woulud not stop her completely, but
they checked her just enough TO guide
her to the bottom in safety.
But there was no wagon brldge
across the Gasconade. Inquiry devel-
oped the fact that there was none
within a days journey. The Terry
boat had been wrecked in recent
freshet. The railroad bridge alone re-
manned. The right OF way belonged to
three stock trains from the West. The
operator allowed that there might be
enough time between the first and sec
ond sections of the installment to en-
able the car to run the bridge in the
opposite direction. The conductor OF a
detained westbound freight volunteered
to cross the river and flag the train
that might interrupt the cars progress
MI IrA Gf.Cf ctr
train passed the Flanders '20' bounced
up on tho ties. one wheel between the
tracks, the other outside. Across the
bridge she bumped her way at twenty
miles an hour, her crew listening for
a warning whistle, Meinzinger intent
at the wheel, Bruske with piece OF
timber with which to enable the car
to jump the rails If 1t became neces-
sary before the road crossing at Jerome
was reached. Far ahead, flag in hand.
stood the friendly conductor.
The bridge was reached in safety,
the long trestle was also crossed and
the car was approaching the safety
zone, when the coming train whlstled
for the bridge. Meinzinger slowed
down, Bruske jumped out and tossed
his timber next the rail, the car bound
ed out exactly at the roadway and the
flagman barely had time TO furl his
bunting up the track when the big
freight thundered past at forty miles
an hour, so close that the wind f1ut-
tered the three flags on the Flanders
"20' hood, as If a gale were blowing.
1t was the first time an automobile
had ever visited Arlington and natur-
ally a novel method of following out
the policy mapped out for the car
the shortest route between Quebec and
Mexico.
Nor did this feat conclude the days
acrobatic performance. From Jerome,
the first station west of the Gascon-
ade, to Dixon, was continuous climb,
the car ascending grades on a road
over which no wagons had Travelled for
six weeks and where even the natives
never go except on occasions of dire
necessity,