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Perils Of The Rail

Perils Of The Rail image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
February
Year
1880
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Several years ago I was an attentive listcner to two oíd Erie engineers, "Jackey" Westervelt and "Abe" Carpenter, who were comparing notes 'about the perilous adventures tíiey had previously had while running on the road. Both of these engineers were widely known and both are now dead, the former dying of consumption, and the latter by being stmck on the head by a plank projecting from a car of lumber in a passenger ti'ain between Goshen and Chester. At the time these well-known engineers were running the opposite sides of the "regular coal" between Port Jervis and this city, their trains being the first to bring coal to tide-water here at the then new works of the Pennsylvania Coal Corapany. Both were good conversationalists, and the stories related were reniarkable and interesting. Both were seated in the cab at estervelt s " mogul," the sixwheeled locomotive, No. 248, one of the flrst hard-coal " nioguls" placed upon the road, and which was then undergoing repairs at the Port Jeryis shop. Carpenter's engine was 249, a companïon engine of the same cías'. The most thrilling part of the storytelling was when it turned upon the nunierous objects - such as horses and wagons, cows, fowls, sheep, hogs and people - they had, during their experienee as engineers, eneountered upon the track whiie running over the road. "That was," said Carpenter, " probably the closest shave that I ever had from going down the bank when I ■truck that drove of cows just this side of the second bridge west of Salisbury, on the Newburg branch. Therc was a dozen or flfteen of Ihem and all were on the track. I had a train of twenty loaded coal-dumps behind me and was bla.ing away the best M9 knew how to gct over Pine Hill without stalling. I liad a good stavt over the straight line just west, and when we poked our nose around the curve between that and the bridffe 1 ucaa going wiih the heavy train all of tweritj-five miles an hour. As we tnrned tothe left thefiremaii seen the oattle tirst, and in a sudden buret of the worst fright I ever see he shrieked, 'My God, Abe! see what's on the track. Simt otl, quiek!' I look the situntion ia at a glanee, and see that I was too f ar on top of 'em to stop, so I pulled her out and hit 'em as hard as I could. üf oonrse, 'twas the best thing I could do to knoek 'ein oft" and not let 'em get under us, so we went through 'em like a pistol-ball would go through paper. Horus flew one way, hoofs another, tails were like meteors flying through the air, and when we pnllea up to see who would get the liuest set of horus with which to adorn tlie engine and inemorize the occasion, as well as the nicest chuck-steak, there were fourteen down the bank - Beven on eaeh side. Sonic had tlieir heads partly off, some theii' legs broken, and the rest were badly mangled, so that all but two had to be killed. My engine was a little besmeared, but no daniage done. It was a fortúnate crack 1 give, tor if any one of 'em had got ander, down the bank we'd a went sure, and a thundering big wreek made." "That rejmnds me," said Westervelt, "of the time I plowed through that big Hoek of slieep 'tother side of the Otterhill crossing. I was going down the grade east of Goshen with a full-loaded train, and at a good clip, niaking, I should think, thirty miles an hour. There were at least forty or fifty of the fleecy animáis, and as ï didn't think they were dangerous to hit, and couldn't stop if Idid, I just letherwhiz, and looked out to see which way they went. 'Twas the most novel sight I ever see. One of 'em I noticed went clean through a rail fence, and took the fence with it. Another one I see strike a big rock, and I teil you he flattened out like some of the copper pennies the boys put on the track for us to run over. But the most of 'em took wings and upward they went, some twenty and more forty feet high. You'd think 'twas raining sheep to see them come down. They were strewn ai! around the road and lields adjoining the track, and the ovvner, when' lie found them, must have j thought a dynamite mine blew 'em up." ïhis spot is where poor Carpenter afterward lost his life, as above stated. by being struck by a plank on a passing train. " Telling of going througlj this drove of sheep at this cressing," continuad Jaekcy, " calis to mind - indeed, I can aever forget it - the time I run into that horse and wagon with a man and tvvo ladios in it at the crossing between Greycourt and Oxford. It was the most harrowing spectacle 1 ever witnessed on the road and God, forbid that I shall ever see another one. I was westvvard bound down that Oxford grade, one of the worst on the road, with a full train of empties and going like the dickons. All of a radden my cyes lit on the man tr ing to get his horse over before I reac-lied him. I blew and tooted, and rung tlie bell, and as I neared liim my heart went up. The horse balked or was frightened, I don't know which, and for once I admit I lost my balance. My nerves completely lort me and I was as helpless as a child. I knew I couldn't stop the big train I had behind, but I called for brakes and reversed with the hope of averting the calamity; but 'twas no use. I was certa'm I was going to kill every one in the wagon and the horse, too, and when I hit them I swooned. 'Twas the most terrible experience I ever had since I have ran an engine. The two ladics secmed as if charmed, and were nerf;i-tly unconscious of their great danper, while the man was beating the animal in a fearful way to get him to pull across out of the way. They all had their eyes riveted on the train, and although it was running them down cve.rv second faster and fastcr. not one of them made a move to jump from the wagon. VI:en I struck Ihem they had not moved a step from tlio spot where I lirst saw them. When the train stoppcd I got stóltlod, but could hardly I recall vvhat I had just geen. My fireman said: 'Lct'.s go back and see if they are killed;' but I couldn't stanrl it and didn't go back. It tnrned out happily that the only one killed was the Iiorse vvho had balked. When the engiue liit him he was directly between the two rails, and belflg slruck with such forco broke loose from the waijon and was sent twenty feet in the 'air, landing in a culver't with his neck braken am' mntilated in a hoiiihle marmer. The man and the two ladies were more frightened, like myself, than hurt. They were all pitched with the wagon into the glitter on the side of the track, and bevond being roughly handled and receiving several scratelies and bruises, nothing serious befel them. Oh, yes, I forgot, the man's arm was broken. The nearest house was opened to them and we went on, I , beinr nintrung and liardly tap.ible of funning tlio rest of the trip. I tel] you I will never forget that experienee, and severa! times since it happened the horrible sight has come to me in my dreams." "Well,"put in Carpenter, " I have never killed a human being j-et, but we can't teil how soon we will. The nearest I ever come to it was at the time I ■track the tramp between Ilowell's and Middletown. That was a good while :igo, and as I was able to nearly stop before I reached him I only gave him a light rap, so light that he only got a leg broken and a small scalp wound, both of which he soon got over, after being taken to the county-house. But did I ever teil you about the brood of geese I struck at Sloatsburg once?" continued "Abe." "That was a fiinny mishap, and l've laughed over it lot's of times. You know geese are like old hens when in front of a wagon or train, cunning and ready to junip out of the way just in the nick of time. These geese were eure 'gooses,' this time, for they didn't budge; like the women you speak of, Jackey, sister 'gooses,' the}' seemed to be enehanted and charmed. There was probably fifty of 'om, but as I knew they eouldn't do any harm if there'd been fifty millions of 'em, I let her out a screw or tvvo on the throttle just to see them fly. You'd ought to sec; 'em. 'Twas just fan. Some of them went up fort3' or fifty feet. They went np on all sides, and yon would think tliat a lot of boys were snowballing my engine. Two of them lit down in the coal in the tender, and one came whizzinar in the cab-window. My flreruan and 1 had roast goose for dinner tliat day, and each took one goosé home. The engino was covered with blood, grease and feathers, and from her appearanoe you'd surely think 'Mother Goose' had beon picking that day." " You know, ' Abe,' the day 1 hoisted up George Haggerty's eaboose several years ago, and eame near killing poor old George? Well," continuedJackey, " that wasn't mach of au adventure, so Til teil you what Toni Wilmoth, who used to ruu on t )ie Sueqxiehanna división, once told me about eluising for miles a herd of liorses. He said iie ovciiouk them one day on a straight level stretch several miles lon, and instead of being f rightened, off tlio track with the whistle and bell, up went their ears, and straight ahead they bolted. Torn said he was tra veling all of, ifnot more tliu.ii, thirty miles a-n iour. He hada light freight train, and of course was violating the rules of the road at that speed, but as he had to make a station ahead of a first-class train, he had to skip along lively to do it. 11e couldn't slaek up speed a bit, íor if lie did he'd liold the lirst-elass. So, with blowing eveiy quarter minute, be kopt on, with the horses on a clear run ahead of him. He said he run on that flat stretch íor miles and miles, and every little while the horees, as if angry at the wonderful speed lie was making them go, threw up their tails defiantly and kieked up their heels furiously, jast like they iuvariably do in an open iield when jou run by them. Torn s:iid il was truly wonderful huw they kept ahead on the track for at least six miles, and oiily went olf the track when a bridge was reached, over which thoy aould uot go. Part of them went off on one side and the. rest on the other side, and then he u-ent on and telegraphed back to the ne.irest office to send out trackraen to put them off the track if possible before the express came along. Fortunately the express was a little late and they got out of they way in time. Torn also said that the horses were as wet and white with foam as if they had jiist been lathered with soap. He didu't l)elieve deer could do what those horses did, and he always rceommended the owners of running horses, if they wanted to Let railroad speed out of their runners, to frighten them good with a loeomotive whistle and bell, and they'd clean the deck. "Oh, that's nothing," facetiously reraarked Carpenter. " Jule Parker once told me about his running after tvvo f uil- grown bucks on a Southern railroad." Parker was a chivalrous dare-devil Southern engineer then running the lightning ex)ress on the Eastern división of the Etie. "He said," Carpenter went on to relate, "that the pair of bucks suddenly bounded upon the tracK from a thiek woods, and so frightened were they from the roar of the approaching train that they started down the track not more than twenty feet in front of the engine. Parker put on all the steam his boiler would niake, and earried his train alone at break-neck speed, but in spite of his tiremen's efforts he could not turn his drivers fast enough to pvertake the Uèet deer. He never said how fast he was running at the time, but I know the man, and when ne told that he was going at 'break-neck speed' we can imagine something about it. ïhe road was a splendid one for speed. It was mostly new, the bed was in prime order, but notwithstanding his engine chawed up fuel as fast as his fireman could feed it to her, he could not run the deer down. It looks astounding, but he said he linally chased them af ter a run of ten miles into a village. There they left the track, ran up and down the streets as wild as cows, and scaied the people into spasms; but bafore doing any selious harmtheywere shot and eaptured. Parker said he grcatly enjoyed the venison steaks that were at'terwards presented to him by an old bootmaker sixty years old, who was the lucky shot." 'Didyou ever hear 'Hughey' Will ianison teil of his adventure at Washingtonville, on the Newburg branchP" asfced Óarpenter. Williamson is another know-no-danger runner, and is now on tlie road. Fisk selected him because ', of his courage to run the Chicago relief train. "Weü," he went on to say. "that was a rarity, and one that seldom occurs. Williamson was in Newburg when he was telegraphed to run td (ireycourt lo assist puiling a big sixwheeler on the track that had run off a ' switch and eouldn't get back herself, as they sómetirnea do, you know. Ol oourse, time was an important thing, u the enginc that was off blocked np the wostward-bound mftin track. Hestarted trom Newburjj with nothing but his enginc, and, having a olear road, you can just bet he flew. He left the rails echoing behind like a Dever-ending waterfall. The station agent at Vail's gate ruslied to the door wild with fright, thinking it was a rur.away cngine, nobody on it. All Salisbury Mills, llie population of which villago is but a few feet froni the truck, rushed out of their houses utterly dismayed and unable to believe their own eyes. They thought it was a sjjccter, which they could not describe, so suddenly did it appear and as quickly vanisti again from sight. Over the Washingtonville ilats the gait was so rnpid the telegrajth-poles looked like blades of grass, they were so thick. Aftcr turn ing the curves at the Washingtonville Station Hwghey esgied a hnnrt mnr full of trnck-Iia'nds, rails, tools, aml so forth. Thoy had no sign of a Hag out, nuil did not expect anvthing along. Ho immcdiately concluded that he could not stop i'n time, so he only blew his whistle to wain tlie men to jump ofl'. There was a dozen of 'eni, and they had a wonderful narrow escape. He picked op that hondear, rails and all, and sent 'cm flyin' in the air in all directions. A low hand-car with rails on ït pointing right at you is the most dangerous thing you eau possibly hit. but the rails this time,, instead of piercing every part of the boiler and engine, swerved off and did little injury. The dinner-kettles of the laborera ilew up like popcorn on a frying-pan, and crowbars, shovels, pickaxes, tamping-bars and spikes, made a complete kaleuloseope in the air. One of the axles of tho car to whieh was attached one wheel bounded over the smoke-stack and came crashing through the cab windovv on the fireman'a side. who was nearly killed in his great hurry to get out of the way. The of the car landed on the front of the engine. and before 'Ilughey' could stop he had carried it through one of those old-fashioned covered bridges nearly a qnarter of a mile oft'. En til my experience," cbncluded Carpenter, "I don't think I ever heard teil of such a miraculoup escapeas 'Hughev' had. He must have been going through the air like an electrio current whea he couldn't stop an empty eagioe before hitting sucha daneerous tliiür." -

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Argus