Omaha daily bee., 1910-08-07

I
the division tin / locate that train, or
Forty-five minutes had passed and the
dispatcher proceeded TO send the necessary
orders holding up every train between
Plattsmouth and Omaha Forty-eight min
utesl Forty-ninel Fiftyl And then
Good Heavensl" raved the dispatcher
Has that train wiped itself off the map9'
Plainly, the Plattsmouth freight was lost
1t had faded away like the smoke from the
despatchers pipe. What had become Of It.?
Had Il tumbled down a trestie into the
darkness OF a ravine. killing the entire
crew? or had 1t leaped from its tracks
and continued its journey across the farms
of Nebraska, the engineman unable to stop
the runaway?
Fifty-one minutes and-Oreapolls, a sta
ton near Plattsmouth, was calling the de-
spatcher at Omaha.
'Plattsmouth freight, number ---, wait
ing here for orders. New crew. Ran from
Gilmore over Mop track, instead OF over
Burlington, without being aware of mis-
take"
! What did he mean9 The Burlington and
the Mop missouri Pacific) tracks parallel
each other, not far apart out of Omaha,
to Gilmore, where they meet. We know
that the dispatcher received word OF the
/ tram at Ollihuiti anu It's utHdlluIe lneTt-
from. Then it apparently disappeared into
} oblivion.
Where Ii Had been.
Now at Gilmore, the Burlington and the
| Mop tracks separate after leaving the sta
ton, but continue south parallel with each
other, though farther apart than north of
Gilmore Near Oreapolis they once more
meet.
Well, them what happened? AT Gilmore
a switch had been left open, and the Bur-
lington train had crossed over to Mop
track and continued on the Mop track
southwark TO Oreapols, where it again
crossed to its own track to continue the
run to Plattsmouth.
As both train and engine crews were new
lit was their first run over the division
they were blissfuly unconscious that they
were playing in another fellows back
yard, and that they represented danger
and death in run over the wrong track.
The Mop side Of this story is not known,
but no casualties were reported.
When the train dispatcher had wiped the
cold sweat from his brow he wired oreap-
ois this oruer:
"Plattsmouth freight, go to Plattsmouth.
The crew then to proceed to Hades without
return orders"
Railroad men have told me that this in
cident is OF the most extraordinary
they ever heard Of.
The Train that Hid.
My second lost train story was related by
Dan sullivan, Union Pacific district Iore-
man for Wyoming at Laramie, while we
smoked the pipe of friendship in his office
in the railroad yard
One day a Union Pacific eastbound
freight train of twenty cars, with Andy
Smith on the right of the engine, reached
Upton, Wyo., and pulled into siding to lei
passenger train NO. get by. The pas
senger was eastbound and, as Andy knew
was right behind MIN.
Presently the filler passed Upton o, *
Then Andy pushed his freight back on the
main line ana followed the flier. Past Rec
Desert ne ran, and on to Wamsutter, where
The puiled up at the station Out rushed the
telegraph operator, and cried:
where's No. 4-the flier?'
"She passed me at Upton" replied En-.
gineman Andy.
THE deuce she didl'
Sure"
We'll then, you must have run right
through her on your way here, for she
hasn't passed this station-stake M life!'
You're dreamih The fher passed me
sixteen miles back at Tipton--stake my
life"
You're fool Andy. Hustle onto the
siding quick! That fliers still behind YOU
And Andy Smith, sorely puzzled at the
} insistence of the operator backed into the
sidin..
but as that filler sure passed US at Tip
ton" he said to his fireman, ''and as
20 mo lrtol,t m hehsnd her and didn't STRIKE
/, her, and as that Teller says she hasn't
passed here, then where in all this gol-
dinged world is she?'
Just then Andy heard the shrek of 8
, locomotive behind him. the Shrek of a trair
cOmlns east toward Wamsutter Andy
could not believe his eyes, 1t was the flier
! 1t stopped at the Wamsutter station ant
Conductor Mills explained to the daEec
operator:
! Had hot box Discovered it aftei
, passing Upton. Drew into the siding a.
Red Desert, halfway between Upton anC
mere, 10 get OFF the main track till W,
cooled the box. on the siding we stooC
on the off-side OF the coal-chute, hidder
from the main track. That's why AndS
smith got by US without seeing us"
And from that day, Andy Smith wa.
known the only englneman on the Unior
l Pacific who could pass the filler with
freight train, with both trains ON the SANE
track anu going in the same direction.
( Now Ior the story OF how a car disap
] peared from the middle of a moving freigh
A tram, despite the vigilance of the boys
S At the time of this tale link ana pin coup
! lers were used.
1t was Englneman Sullivan's freight trail
r of twenty-four cars. That is, sullivan haS
q twenty-tour cars when he came over TN,
n backbone Of America" at Creston, Wyo.
a wnere a sisnboard informs tourists tina
they are at the Great Continental Divide.
. Coating out of the Train.
q But when the train got to Rawlns,
division end twenty-nine miles from thu
Great Divide, the crew counted their car
and found-only twenty-three.
A car had been lost Lost from tn,
very middle of the train! For they fount
that the train had parted I'm the middle
But the hind part had followed on dow
= the hill so close to the fore part that tn
break had not been noticed.
= "Do you mean TO tell me that a car
snatcher could steal car from a MOVING
train?" cried the conductor. you meal
Z to say an eagle lifted that car bodily on
of my train when we were running twent,