The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-12
AVOIDING THE WRECK
BY RALPH n. SILVER

to sidetrack at swannee and save the
lives of the passengers of both trains
In moment the young college chap
took In the situation. With a thrill
through his body as If he were on the
football field, with all eyes upon him, he
turned to the fireman. Stop shoveling,"
he said; send man to stand on the back
coach platform and keep signaling for an
open switch as we approach Swannee.
But first take a poker and pry the top
of that whistle little to one side"
As the fireman pried the top of the whis-
tie over the tone of 1t was changed until
finally noise unlike that ever heard be-
fore on any locomotive was tearing
through the night with its message OF
warning.
Dick partly closed the throttle, but the
speed of the train did not slacken, for he
gradually released the airbralkes which
the unskilled fireman had applied and
soon the train was running backwards
even faster than before, but the swaying
of the coaches had appreciably dimin-
ished and the train was taking the little
grades as gracefully as bird.
Up In the telegraph tower at Swannee
sat Charley Banert, the night operator,
cold drops of sweat starting from his fore
head and trickling down his face and be-
hind his ears. Ninety-three had not
passed him more than 90 seconds when he
had received this message from Crawley,
the dispatcher: Hold 93-3S will pass at
| 9:4o-Crawley." He re-read the words on
the slip of paper he held In his hands now
and trembed as he thought of what would
soon happen between Swannee and Nash
vile. His instrument clicked. "Swanee,'
he answered Hold everything-wreck
train there at 9:50-meet with doctors
Crawley;. licked the wire.
He Jumped to telephone and called up
the three doctors In the town. AS he
hung up the receiver he heard the shrill
shrek of the wrecker coming up from
Canton He signaled her to stop and two
minutes later she came to standstill in
the yards below him.
Suddenly a strange whistle was heard
blowing down the east track. 1t attract
ed the attention of the operator first, and
from his high position he soon distin-
guished the red light of the back end of
train and a swinging light. that was
signalling for an open switch. Banert
took in the situation In an instant. He
yelled orders to the wrecker to clear the
track and at the same time signaled the
switchman to open switch from the
east
The yard below became alive with rum
ming, shouting men as they realized that
So was backing toward them still ahead
OF the limited and that the wreck had not
yet happened.
The wreck train pulled backwards and
just as she cleared the main track SO
tore into the east switch. There was
rumbling rolling. roar; flash of her
headlight, the hiss of escaping steam snd
the big steel monster cutting the atmSs-
phere and the red lights on the back
coach of So began to grow DINNER as she
left Swanee farther and farther behind
her.
In a few minutes afterward 1t was
learned what had happened. The local, SO,
was provided with an engineer and pulled
out again for Nashville. The wreck en-
CINE was coupled to a coach and sent to
bring the regular engineer of SO back to
Swanee The passengers of SO did not
know what had really happened until
after they reached Nashville, but as soon
as he could find her, Dick told a girl all
about 1t as they sat in one seat together,
and on account of the noise, sat exceed
ingly close together.