Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1875 — Another Anecdote of the Rail. [ARTICLE]

Another Anecdote of the Rail.

Some years ago there were engaged upon the Boston & Providence Railroad two men, as engineers, who are now eminent as master mechanics of railroads. They were both skillful men. As they ran regular trains, they each had a locomotive which they ran daily, and they became as much attached to their machines as any gentleman will be to a fine horse. They could perform any task with them, and obtain such speed out of them as no other engineer could. One of them, whom we will call Green, used to say that he could stop his engine within an inch of a mark to be put up on the trqck. In fact, he used to do it at the Roxbury stop frequently (when the “ old man,” meaning the master mechanic, was not aboard) to his admiring associates. The other man—Brown—was equally proud of his machine. You would think he had a circus trick-horse to hear him talk. These men of course had a little rivalry between them, which was always encouraged by the other boys on the road. Green stated one day that he would hang up his gold watch on the back of Brown’s tender, and would run fifteen hundred feet at full speed, and stop- with his draw-bar within one inch of the watch. He was dared to do it. He accepted the challenge and accomplished what he said he could. Brown was astonished at the daring of his associate and concluded that if he did not take the wind out of his sails his (Browpls) .fame would be under a cloud. So he said that it was luck on Green’s part;; hat he could not do it again; would bet $5. The bet was accepted and Green sailed back to the starting point, and in due time came back at full speed and went at Brown’s tender with ap, awful whack. The watch was somewhat enlarged superficially; it was quite thin, and the crystal was in more than one piece. As a time-keeper its avocation had ceased entirely. The reason of the smash-up was, BroWn had quietly moved his machine several inches by leaking steam into cylinders. This he had managed to do unperceived by the bystanders, who were very intently watching Green’s movements. The latter was wonder-struck at the failure of his feat, but he never for a moment supposed that Brown had played him false. He never tried the thing again. In after years Brown presented him with a valuable watch, with due explanations, which was to the receiver an astonishing revelation. r . A »