Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-01-20
STUNT FLYER FAILS
TO RISE FROM TOP
OF SPEEDING TRAIN
CONTINUED from Page u

he was writing ON space rates. But
then you have to think of everything
in advance, in such expeditions.
Paul Stevenson remembered soon
after we had climbed up the ladder
to the platform and were waiting at
the switch that he had carelessly al
lowed his insurance to lapse the
week before. 1t was a sorry time
to think of it.
. Then came a protracted debate
with Conductor Chappell and Master
Mechanic F. w. Douglas, who had
designed the platform. 1t seems it
would hold forty men, all right, il
they stood firmly. But the railing,
Mr.. Douglas added, might possibly
give way if everybody swayed
against it at once, on a curve.
There were seven of us up there.
beside the conductor. Two of us had
to come down, it seemed.
Everybody looked at Paul and me,
and drew off to the other side of the
bridge. They seemed to think we
were the ones. We argued eloquent
ly. We promised not to touch the
railing at all, but to sit down. This
was no great sacrifice, so far as
I was concerned. I already had
made up my mind to sit down, hav-
ing a vivid recollections from per-
sonal experience of the way big
locomotive sWays and jumps on the
curves.
The Chase Begins
Finally we won out, on the promise
to sit down. The master mechanic
went down the ladder and the ladder
was strapped back to the side of the
big engine, I recall a vague sort Of
wish that we might need it again. The
movie tripod was dashed fast to the
deck.
Everything got quiet, as quiet as
possible with a racing locomotive
steaming just at the back of your
neck. The Palmettoans had espied
the planes, which were drawing in
from the north. Away back OF US we
heard mellow blast.
1.-THE Limited" said somebody.
And here she came!
Our skipper let her pass us, at
the prescribed thirty an hour, on
the righthand track going north.
Then the great machine under us
began to move and to gain speed
with an increasing below from the
stack and a shower of wet cinders
about us as>we set sail for the flying
Limited, now picking up to a mile
a minute toward the horizon.
It's hard to judge distances from
an unfamiliar viewpoint, and it
looked to me as if we were left
hopelessly left. The rear car of the
Limited, it's platform an absolute
mass of faces and forms, was Whirl-
ing away into an indistinct blur as
Joe Dennis let his own engine have
the steam and 1 had mental pic
ture Of him, hooking her back a
notch at time. She was quick on
the pickup; I'll say that for her.
Trailing two cars and a tender-full
of other observers, the big loco be-
gan to roar like a cyclone and bound
on the rails; and in our faces a sud-
OGn WlIlu CdulC 1IhG o. DlcoI IL Jill C4lO
Norsemans hell-gosh, it was cold!
Yet the morning had seemed fair and
mild, as we started.
Seventy Miles an Hour
She was quick on the pickup
but the Limited had a start of nearly
half a mile and was balnig the jack,
batting her siXty-an-hOur up the
track: and a stern chase usually is a
long chase.
I think as we closed with the fly
ing Limited that Joe Dennis had her
close to seventy miles an hour, for
wee closed fast; it seemed the Linn
tied must have slowed down, yet a
glimpse at her flying drivers as she
turned a curve showed her still LAY
ing the miles over her shoulder as a
man planes shayings from soft pine,
as r. Kipling one caid it.
The wind was steady now; a solid
pressure that held the camera back
against M chest; it was cold, too,
and we were getting a grist Of Gin
derss from the Limited. Under us
the platform leaped and swayed. q.
We took curve and L started a
slide, checked with one foot against
the board around the base Of the
platform. Above us, Bpchanan
was sticking like a cat to the movie
camera, dashed to the deck. Sorenson
of the p. and A. Shutdown beside me,
using a "sight camera. Brown
and Lane struggled with the Ora
fleXes.
The deafening below Of the huge
engine behind seemed to compress
thought into something else--it was
hard to think. F.. The edged wind
stung the eyes and brought water. -.
Why hadn't I thought to bring Cog
giles, like Sorenson and Buchanan
and the conductor? :.
There he goes-a white figure.
climbing up from the observation
platform of the Limited as we close
in: Bonnie Lowe, getting onto the
roof; standing up, but leaning well
forward against the blast; looking
for the plane. :. Now we had caught
the Limited. We could see the
whites Of their eyes, on the obser-
walton platform :. More white than
usual. it seemed to me. Peoples
ewes really do stick out when they
are excited.
Best Efforts i'm Vain
Up with the9Limited now; thunder
ing along beside her. Full
man porters at the vestibule doors
their eyes showing a special amount