The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-09-17
uifh "CASEY JONES"

a cinder at yourself once in a
while. Do all this and you will get
fair idea of how it feels to ride
in a locomotive at midnight.
1t was a stormy night. No. Is.
one of the 92-foot-long $50 ton
giants of the Chicago, Milwaukee
and ST Paul, with her heavy
string of II passenger cars, was
leaping through the dark, cloudy
night at fifty-five miles an hour.
We had been out of Chicago only
about an hour, but long enough to
run into and then out of no less
than three heavy rains. The tracks
were wet.
DrivirD Wheels Slip.
Suddenly the humping of the en-
CINE increased alarmingly. All the
train wrecks I'd ever heard of
flashed up. | looked over to the
right side of the cab, where John
Slattery, big, jolly engineer of No.
Is minded his throttles and brakes.
He was leaning hard against a
lever. The speed of the train
Stacked. Then, almost as suddenly
as it had started, the extra jerking
of the engine stopped. 1t returned
to its normal humping. | sat back
on the Observation-Disclosures
window seat on the left side of the
cab with Johnny King, fireman,
feeling relieved that nothing seri-
Gus had happened.
'Those wet rails are bad" yelled
JOHNNY in my ear.
Conversation Taboo.
The cab of a locomotive is no
place for laxative person. l had
hundred and one questions to
ask, but decided to hold them off
till we came to stop. Only oc-
casionally did Johnny and the en-
gineer talk with each other and
then only when one would stick his
head close to the others ear and
yell.
"You have it pretty comfortable
in here in the winter with this fire
pit in front of you" Johnny had
climbed up on our window seat be-
tween shovelfuls and | leaned 70
his ear.
Don't you believe it," yells he.
This place gets pretty cold in
winter. Wind and snow beat in
here in spite of side curtains. We
burn about twice as much coal"
This being the case, Johnny has
mighty hard job in winter. In
summer he shovels almost contin-
uously, taking only brief rests of
i'm,
then.
That ride corrected at least one
mistaken idea of mine. | had sup
posed the only time the engine bell
rang was when the engine came to
a stop and started 1t rings all
the time and by air force. The en-
gineer blows the whistle by pull
ing a small lever above his head.
The headlight of an engine il.
Eliminates only about fifty yards
ahead. But the light can be plainly
seen several miles distant We
passed No. So headed in the oppo-
site direction and when she was
couple of miles ahead her head
light looked like full moon.
Fascinating Experience.
1t was fascinating to sit high in
he cab of the speeding engine and
watch the dark. silent little towns
whiz past and wonder what the viii
ayers were dreaming about, and to
see Johnny King heave his coal
nto the wide mouth of the fire pit,
Ind to watch John Slattery push
lis throttle and levers and keep
us eyes on the track and signals
head
But the rough riding!
We arrived in Milwaukee, where
was to get off, half hour after
Midnight. Mr.. Slattery, goggles off,
ong spouted oil can in his hand.
'as the first to jump from the cab.
came next.
Well" says he, grinning, did
shake your gizzard out?"
"Gizzard?" says |, rubbing nv
ack with one hand and digging
lnder out of my right eye with
he other. "Gizzards, please"
Johnny King, heaving in an
Stra shovelful, chuckled.- George
CInunInnI