An Awful Railroad Race

By a locomotivo, explosión on a Western railroad a few days ago, thc enirineer, Jobn Davison, was killed. Davison was olie of the oldest engineers in the country, and was for several years on Ihe Buffalo, Corry & l'ittsburgh'liailroad, where he h.ul one of the most terrible experiences that has ever been recorded in the history of railroad in"-. His death recalls that night of peril to ev(!iy one in this part of the State, although it has never ceased tobe relatet in minutest detail at all gatherings o: railroad men where the dangers of thc footboard have 'Deen the topic. From Mayville Sumniit to Brocton Junction of the Lake Shore Road the distance is ten miles, but owing to the numerous sweeping curves in the railroad the distance by rail is fonrtéen miles. The grade for that distance is nearly eighty feet to the mile. The Corry Road extends into the Pennsylvania oil regions, and ten years ago carricd large quantities of petroleum. On the night of August 17, 1869, iMvison's engine was at the Summit with a train of one box car, six loaded oi cars and two passenger cars. The box car was next to the locomotive, and the passenger cara were at the reai of the train. The engineer had starter the train, and it had attained goot headway, when he discovered llames issuing from one of the oil cars. He whistled down brakes, and the coaches were cut loo&e from the oil cars, which were quickly uncoupled from the box car. The engineer then pulled on down the hill, to get out of the reach of the burning cars, in order to save the locomotive and the other car, in which were two valuable trotting horses and their keepers on their way to Cleveland. He supposed the brakemen would put the brakes on the oil cars, but in the excitement thiswas notdone, and they followed the locomotive, gaining headway every moment. Bcfore the engineor had taken in the situation, the oil cars, every one of them now ablaze, came dashing upon him around a curve. They crashed into the box car, knoeking in one end of it, but, singularly enough, noither that nor any of the moving ears were thrown from the track by the collision. The engineer and iireman could have escaped all danger by abandoning the locomotive, but, as Davison said when asked afterward why he did not pursue that course, tliey had 20,000 worth of the company's property in their charge, and they were determined to save it if possible. According to the engineor's story of the incident, he saw that there was to be a race for life betweon him, with his engine, and the naming cars, under no control. He said that wlien the oil cars struck the one in which the horses were the poor animáis actually screamed witli fright. The heat was unbearable. Davison pulled tho throttlevalve wide open, and lie deelared that they ücw down tho eighty-foot grade so f.ist that the engine could not pump. The koepers in the car next to the oil cars climbed up to the opening in the end of the car, and. vvith faces palé as R1 - fanp-gnrl -ik. -.,„: „. .„T... o: - her more steam." They could see tho blazing oil cars through'the broken end of their car, and it aeemed to them that they gained at every turn of the wheels. The engineer said that when he struck the sharp curres at the lightning speed at which he was going" he expected that lus engine would leave the track and be hurled down the mountain-top. Tho night was very dark. The engine thundered along faster than any engine ever ran in this country before or since, through woods and deep rock cuts, and on the edge of high precipices. The horses were stamping and neighing with terror in the box cm , and only a few feet in the rear was the íiying masa of llame rushing down the mountain line a tremendous meteor. The blaze from the thousands of gallons of burning oil was more than sixty feot in height, and lighted up the woods. and rocks, and crooked road for miles. The who!e heavens were illuminated, and from Brocton the sight of the great conilagration, apparently tlying throngh the air, now hidden for a seeond by a cut or a pieee of woods, and then leaping out again and up toward the sky like a huge fountain of fira, is described as liaving been awful in iis grandeur. Tbe idea of Engineer Davison was to cali for the opening of the switch for him at Brocton Junction, so that he could run onto the Lake Shore track, where the grade was ascending, and where he could soon get out of the wav of the burning cars through their havïng lost the propelling power of the decliiK! of the Summit grade. It hapjened, however, that the Cincinnati ixpress on the Lake Shoro Road would se due at tlie junction wlien Davison's engine reached thero. To add to the error of the situalion, a west-bound Jake-Shore freight train was at that nomcnt running to ]iass the junction jefore the arrival of the express. There was only one thing lo do, and that was o whistle for the switch, and take the chances of the freight getting out of the way and the express being ilagged or Lite. The engineer knew that he must havo been seen from Brocton Junction by the liglit of the burning oil in his lifeor-death race down the mountain, and that the railroad men tere understood the peril of the siluaion and would be prompt to act. He vhistled for open switch. He and his ireman then bade each other good-bye and awaited the result. The freight ;rain gained the siding out of their way. The switch was opened, and they tore on up the Lake Shore track, last the depot, and through ,l)o village, and were soon out of the way of the burning cars. The atter gradually canie to a stop. The ngine and box car were stopped withn a bundred yards of tho Lake Shore express, which was botli late and signaled. When Davison .and tho IJreman found they were out of danger they fainted on their engliic. The horses in the box car were ruined. and tlicir keepers were taken from the car unconBcioua. The oil tanks burned for three hours after they wero stopped. The most fortúnate circumstance of the vvhole affair was the uneoupling of tho passenger cars from the oil cars at the Stimmit. They were iilled with passengers, and if they had remained with the burning tanks they would have been wrapped in llames in a very sliort time, and therc woukl liave been no escape for the passengers from a most I horrible fate. It was just nine o'clock when Davison pulled out from Mayville Sumniit. When lie was taken from his engine, sixteen miles from thatpoint, it was not yet twelvc minutes past the bour. James Keeuan, Davison's firenmn, ' was killed about three years ago. He was on his engine, when he saw a child playing on tTio track some distanc ahead. Ho ran out to the pilot, and, reaehing over, caught the child and tossed it to ono side of the track. Ha lost his balance, however, and feil in front of the locomotiva and wascruslieit to (leath. -