Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1914-07-08
BREAKING THE
LIMIT
An Engineers Ride For Life
and Lives
By JARED L. FULLER

Pug Donaldson. who had been the
roundhouse foreman so long that he
thought he owned the entire system,
gave out his opinion of Lannigan at
the end of the latter's first week on
the NJ. and s. P. And this was it:
THAT Grandfather Longlegs never II
get to hold down passenger lever on
this road. whatever he's done back
east. 1t amt In him."
Then the old man chalked up the
limit on the side of his little smoke dis
colored office, spat with emphasis and
well. that closed the subject as far
las Pug was concerned.
reckon If Launigan hadn't begun
by blowing about his eastern record
he'd made more of hit with us.
He was a tall, awkwardly built man.
with shock Of sandy hair and a
smooth, humorous face. His legs and
arms were remarkably long and thin.
and old Donaldson's sobriquet stuck
to him. Daddy Longlegs'' seemed
to fit
Lannigan got freight, and the worst
bunch of scrap iron on the road, which,
in moments of enthusiasm, Pug called
an engine. If there was any man hand
icapped in the race to break the limit
1t was the new man from the land of
tenderfeet
The system of advancement follow
ed by the NJ. and s. P. did not include
length of service or pull" Just one
thing counted-the ability of a driver
to get speed out of his machine over
the worst track the law ever allowed
man to lay.
The country was new when the NJ.
and S. P. was surveyed and laid down.
1t had been a race between the M. and
s. P. and another corporation to see
which should reach, the terminating
town where connection could be made
with the Pacific road first.
We won, but at a cost which Grip
pied the road financially for years. and
the renewing of the first roadbed was
slow and laborious job.
We ran one fast passenger-the Lin
tied. The through mail cars were at
tached to that train too.
1t was a continual fight all through
the year to keep that one train alone
up to the schedule called for by the
contract with the government
IL any man on any other train show
ed the ability to get speed out Of his
engine he was watched, and If he
"broke the limit" he stood good
chance Of displacing the driver then
running the mail train
The NJ. and s. P. in those days was
farmers railroad" Most of the
way stations were merely huts and wa
ter tanks in forest clearings, tapping a
certain section of farming country
stretching westward Of the line.
Lannigan had been with US since the
winter before. He was good driver.
but not brilliant Anybody but a pref
udiced old fool like Donaldson would
have recognized his good points, but
you never could stir the roundhouse
foreman when he'd once made up his
mind
Lannigan had learned the road and
his engine. If he followed another
train he was on its heels all the time
and got himself well cursed for it.
Some of US began to see that there
really was more to the eastern man
than we had believed.
That fall was dry, the sun and wind
all day and every day drying the sap
out of the trees and brush and burning
the leaves brown before the frost could
make them pretty.
By and by the inevitable happened
Fires began to light up the heavens
nightly. and by day streaks of blue
smoke hid the tops of the higher hills.
Reports reached us from all direc-
tons of families burned out and set
Elements threatened, but for week
the confagrat,ons kept away from the
line of the road
Then suddenly one Sunday morning
a food of fire swooped down the noun
tain side and crossed the tracks some
miles south of Yardsley.
The Limited came through somewhat
scorched, and the next day traffic on
the road between Lattell and the juno
ton was cut off altogether.
This shut off several settlements as
well as Yardsley. except by telegraph.
The wires were still working, and our
operators stuck to their posts like the
brave fellows they were
Pretty near every living soul in a
hundred square miles of territory lit
out for less dangerous ground. But
Yardsley was caught mapping, and its
300 people were practically hemmed in
by the fiercest forest fire the state had
ever experienced.
The entire system of the M. and s. P.
was pretty well tied up. We had pull
ed freight as near the fire line as we
dared, and the sidetracks were about
full of waiting cars.
The fire was still burning fercely be-
side the roadbed In more than one
place, and we weren't asked to try to
pull a train through to the junction.
Naturally there were plenty of loco
-. n.I r.l1ntu nf driy Tat-