Engineer Stops Train to Do Some Fishing

1916

Lumber Dealer Files Suit for $2,000, His Alleged Loss by Railroad Man's Act.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana. — Admitting that fishing is alluring, but contending, that business is business, Edgar Wright, lumber dealer, has filed suit for $2,000 against an engineer on the Baton Rouge, Hammond & Eastern Railroad.

In his petition Wright alleges he lost a lumber contract worth $2,000 because the engineer halted his train two hours to try his luck at fishing in a pond along the line.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 11.

Mustn't "Own" Their Engines

1901

The railroad engineer who "owns" his engine is not in favor with his superiors. Complaints about trivial matters are likely to be made against him and soon he finds himself without a berth. The phrase "owning an engine" does not mean that the engineer has acquired title to his iron horse. The expression is used of a man who has been with a certain engine so long that he becomes a part of it. He knows its every peculiarity, he feels its every protest against a heavy load, and he nurses it and coddles it as if it were his child. He dislikes to run the engine at top speed for fear something will happen to it, and in consequence his train is frequently behind time. He takes a grade at half the rate he should, and he runs cautiously down hill. In a word, he "owns" his engine.

Of course this is all very nice and idyllic, and it is the kind of thing a person likes to read about in stories of the railroad. But plain, practical rail road men look at it differently. They argue that the best engineer is the man who never fails to run his train according to his running time, the man who is never behind and seldom ahead. So it comes about that the engineer who makes a master of that which should be his servant wonders who has a grudge against him. But it isn't a grudge; it's business. — New York Mail and Express.

Comment: I've been thinking about this article for a couple of days. It's a real mindworm! Think of any equipment that you operate, and how you may "coddle" it so it will keep going. My first thought would be that's exactly what you want. But according to this article, just let it rip! And don't worry whether it will stand the test of time.

An Engineer's Experience

1902

"The superstition about owls is a wonderful thing," said an old railroad engineer, "and if I had not been inclined to be superstitious about the birds the engine I was riding one night would have been knocked into smithereens and the passengers in the coaches might have fared very badly. I am not always superstitious, but I am particularly so about owls. But I like the creatures, for one certainly saved my life.

"The incident occurred on a very dark night. The train was running at full speed. We were running on a straight line, and there was nothing for the fireman and myself to do but to look directly ahead and let her run. I had been looking intently for an hour, when something flew into the cab. It struck the coal pile and fell back dead. It was a great gray owl. Within less time than it takes to tell it I began to think that the owl was a bad omen, and I stopped the train immediately. I cannot say what made me feel so, but I was sure that death was ahead. I descended and walked to a switch that was a short distance ahead of us. It was open and a long train of empty freight cars was on it.

"I had the owl stuffed, and since that time he has had a place in the cab of my engine. I owe my life to the superstition about owls, and if another one strikes my engine I will close the throttle at once." — New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Train Ferries in Europe

1894

From the Engineering Mechanic

English engineers, finding it necessary to adopt our system of train ferries, and not wishing to give us credit of inaugurating that system, have managed to discover a Sir John somebody who worked the whole thing up fifteen years ago.

A New York paper says: "There seems to be nothing in the way of running unbroken trains between London and Paris, except the necessary capital and the employment of sufficient technical skill. If the London, Chatham, and Dover would combine with the Northern, of France, and employ an experienced American engineer to plan and construct the docks and appliances for embarking and landing the trains, and at the same time send to any of the shipbuilding establishments on our great lakes for a man to construct the ferry boats, the arrangement could be perfected in a year and a half or two years, when freight and passengers could be transported from any part of Great Britain to the Continent, and eventually to all of Asia and Africa, without change of cars or break of bulk."

The system of train ferries will no doubt be established throughout Europe in a few years, and will do much to expedite and cheapen transit.

Honest Chicken Leaves Egg Behind As Train Fare

1921

HEN PAYS HER FARE; LAYS EGG FOR ENGINEER

DENVER, Colo., June 23.— Rather than beat her way on a locomotive, a hen laid an egg on the engine's pilot as payment, according to Paul Burkey, Colorado & Southern passenger engineer.

Burkey told railroad officials here that a hen boarded his locomotive at Trinidad, Tuesday. At Walsenburg, $1.25 by railway fare, the cackling hen flew off the engine pilot and Burkey found a new laid egg on the front of the locomotive. He intends to hard boil the egg and keep it as a souvenir of an honest fowl.

—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, CA, June 23, 1921, p. 11.

Engineer Dies Awful Death, Blood Drawn From Body

1907

EVERY DROP OF BLOOD DRAWN FROM HIS BODY

Engineer Dies Awful Death From Contact With Suction Pipe.

Chicago, May 11 — By having almost every drop of blood drawn from his body when his leg was caught in a suction pipe, Walter Hunter, an engineer employed by Armour & Company, was killed today while repairing the power plant.

The post mortem examination showed that Hunter's heart was shriveled up, his lungs were flat and empty and there was scarcely any trace of blood in the organs of the upper part of the body. Several of the arteries in Hunter's leg were broken by the suction.