Evening star., 1926-11-14

: it pass. or thunders past some tiny
; station.
| &EVENTY miles an hour is the
~ speed limit. No. 3749' hits it up
around fifty-five. sixty. and sixty five.
! She pounds the rails under her like a
| blacksmith's hammer hitting an anvil,
and she Sways, and jerks. and lunges
| until the observer in the cab, hold
! ing tight wonders what makes her
! stick to the rails. She rushes toward
| 4 curve like q halfback skirting his
| end, and she takes the curve as
| sWeetly as an old lady rounding q
| bend in the stairs. Looking back
! from the cab window, one catches
a glimpse of her silent followers, the
| late afternoon sun painting the rows
/ of windows as red as the maple leaves.
Bush motions the observer in the
| cab to come over to his side. Up to
| this minute. the observer has been
! debating the possible advantages of
| getting off at Baltimore and coming
| back on the W., r. & A. He has
| been clinging to the fireman'S seat
| like a rat on a raft. and he undertakes
| the perilouS voyage across the sway
| ing floor of the cab with no small
amount Of trepidation. But he ac-
complishes il with a surge of honest
| pride as he remembers the caution
written in the s"fe and sane vesti-
! buleS for Weaklings who ride in
coaches - Passengers Should Not
! Stand on the Platform While the
! Train is I'm Motion. Safety First"
Bush his eyes never leaving the
tract. ahead Of him. explains, above
, he roar of No. 3749. the rudiments OF
, the block system-the semaphores,
with their warning arms; arms which
point to the sky when the way is
clear ard the track is fast; arms
which hang doubtfully at 45-degree
angle when there is something up
ahead somewhere, and arms that hang
uncOmpromisingly at 90 degrees and
| order Il stop. The blocks are ar
ranged. Bush screams, so that IA train
entering one of them at the speed
i is supposed TO travel will have
| plenty of time to stop before 1t
: reaches the next. one. The clear"
signal, indicated in the daytime by a
I sem" rhore or by vertical string of
lights, means that all is clear for the
extent Of that block and the next one
and tells the engineer as he shoots
| past that he has several miles Of clear
! running ahead. The "approach" sig
nal. Indicated by lights or 1t sema
| phore arm at 45 degrees, means that
the train may have to stop on enter
! ing the next block, and is Il sign to
SLOW down. The stop signal means
stop-then proceed slowly until the
cause OF the stop becomes apparent to
the engineer.
As No. 3149 clangS her way to Bal
timore she has a clear track. Bush,
to show that he's alive and to tell
the fireman that he has seen the next
! signal, shouts them out to his fire
man. The fireman shouts them back
/ to show that he understands. When
the train rounds a curve that brings
, he signal first into the tiremanS
vision, he calls it. and the engineer
repeats 1t.
! Far down the straight stretch of
/ track the observer sights another
/ riain. obeying instructions, he ducks
away from the cab window as the
limited rushes past Phelps, the
friendly fireman, has shouted Out that
it is ethical and in good taste thus to
duck. for on passing Il train the rush
, Of wind or Il flying lump OF coal may
break the window of the cab. So
+ ducking is done in the best railroad
ing circles. But as we pass, Phelps
has noticed that the train, which the
ignorant observer thought was rush
ing at us at 80 miles an hour or SO, is
standing perfectly still. And in the
split second that it took us to pass 1t,
his keen eye took in the fact that the
rngine, hauling a freight train, was
disabled by a broken driving rod. And
I as we sped along we found Veritfcation
of his diagnosis, first by solitary en-
gine steaming along to help out its
wounded comrade; next two or three
indignant passenger trains waiting at
a block set against them, and delaying
until we passed them so they might
borrow the mort h bound track to go
south. and, third, by wrecking train,
Gathering on its way 10 trouble to
clear it up.
During the 40-miIe run to Baltimore,
Bush has put to shame the motion
picture engineer who glances nervous
ly at his watch every few feet. He
has never looked at his watch single
time, for he knows instinctively how
fast his charging steed is covering
ground. But as we enter the out