Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 285, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1914 — MADE TIME FOR ONCE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MADE TIME FOR ONCE

OCCABION WHEN “OLD BILL” EXCEEDED BPEED LIMIT. Circumstances‘Over Which Engineer Had No Control Caused Pet Locomotive to Exert Itself As Never Before. “Old Bill’s fireman used to duck his head every time he stooped over to put in a fire from force of habit, he was so used to havin’ Old Bill kick at him,’’ relates a veteran engineer in the Railroad Man’s Magazine. “And whenever the brakemen wanted to know anything about their Work, they used to drop Old Pop Hickenlooper a postal card.

“Old Bill was perfectly dotty about his engine. He was eternally fussing about the old mill. He couldn’t run her half a mile without stoppin’ to oil round. He would' steal oil for her from the other engines, besides using about three times as much as any other man used that he got on requisition. He wouldn’t crowd her over eight miles an hour for fear of heating her brasses, and he simply wouldn’t pull a full train. “Any of you fellers that ljave been over the Denver & Rio Grande knows that cornin’ down the Cimarron canyon is like failin’ down a well. Pop Hick-

enlooper was at the Summit one day when he got a ‘can have’ to Gunnison. The orders didn’t allow any time for pickin’ flowers, so they started right down the canyon, with Old Bill grumblin’ as usual because his darling old mill would have to turmhef wheels so fast. *

“He had a string of a dozen empty flats, with a hundred Italian shovelers for passengers. Old Bill worked steam a little till he’d got ’em a’ rollin’ nicely; then he shut off, stretched himself out on the seat-box, and prepared for a comfortable ride, expectin’, of course, that the brakemen. would do the rest.

“This was in the good old days of the Armstrong brake, you see. He didn’t take much notice until he saw a juniper bush on the rocks close beside the track bend violently over in the direction he was goin’, as no bush ever does except In a violent wind. Then he yelped for brake?.

“Did anybody ever see a flat-car anywhere that ever had a brake in good order? I never did. The only response Bill’s call for brakes was an extra spurt as them ornery flats dropped down over a little pitch. Old Bill let out another yelp add looked to see why it wasn’t responded to. “He saw the two brakemen on the caboose platform, both swingin’ on the caboose brake, the only one on the whole train that would hold two ounces,' with Pop Hickenlooper standin’ in the door, watchin’ ’em with his eyes stickin’ out till you could have used ’em for hat-pegs. “By this time they were goin’ so fast that the wind picked up one of the light-weight Italians and slammed him back agsiinst the two brakemen, biff! They all fell off. Old Bill kept yelpin’ for brakes and givin’ her sand, while the fireman made the greatest effort of his life 'with the tank-brake. Another Italian was picked up by the wind and carried off, followed by another and another until the train was depopulated.

“By this time the train was moving so swift that it cracked like the snapper on a whip every time it went around a reverse curve. The wheels were spinning so fast that the humming they made was keyed up to a pitch as shrill as the song of a mosquito. In their wake was an odor of scorching wood, caused by the friction of them old flats.

“They probably would have busted out into a blaze if it hadn’t been for the creek. The road followed every ben£ of the creek within three feet of the water, just like all mountain roads do. That truju was goin’ so fast that the suctipn just picked all the water up bodily and eddied it around over them flats, keepln’ 'em thoroughly drenched, and so preventin’ a fire.”