Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/180

366 he told me to mind my own business, if I had any.

The officials had heard my report, and stopping short, Mr. Seely asked Joe what was the matter with his center casting.

"Nawthin'," said Joe; "only this wiper's found a mare's nest. I guess I'm competent to look after my own engine without any help from the wipers."

Mr. Seely, however, looked under the engine himself, and seeing that I was right, ordered her back into the house, and a spare engine got ready in a hurry, and then he read the riot act to Mr. Joseph H. Grinnell in a manner that the oldest "plug-puller" on the road had never heard equalled.

At first Joe answered back pretty stiffly, but as he knew he was dead wrong, he couldn't say much.

The engineers, firemen, wipers, and, in fact, everybody about the place, came running from all directions to hear. As a grand finale, the old man, after calling him everything but a "first-class engineer," sent him home for ten days, charged with incompetency.

The next morning when I came to work, Mr. Phelps told me to go home again and return at six to relieve a fireman on one of the switch engines. My wiping days were now over, and once more I found myself on the left side of a locomotive. On the second day, the engineer asked me if I thought I could handle her. I said I guessed so; and stepping out from alongside the boiler, he said, "All right, then; get hold o' this bat, an' let's see ye shape yerself."

I was somewhat nervous at first. It startled me to feel her go the instant that I touched the throttle, and though I knew perfectly how she ought to be handled, yet I found it confusing when I came to do it myself. The throttle, reverse lever, and brake seemed to be in each other's way, and I couldn't find them with my hands without looking for them—an act that is rankly unprofessional. Then again, I would catch myself just in the act of giving her steam when I should have reversed her first, calling forth profane and jeering remarks from the engineer, which were extremely mortifying. The engineer stayed with me about an hour, watching me sharply, and giving me lots of advice. I soon gained confidence, and as I kept a sharp lookout for signals, and obeyed them promptly, the engineer—satisfied that I could do the work—stepped off and went into the yard-master's office to "chin."

He had not been off the engine ten minutes when the conductor undertook to make a "double cut," that is, to cut off two sections of the moving train and send each into its proper switch without stopping. When properly done, it is a neat manœuver, and a great time-saver. There should be a man at each switch, one to pull the pin, and one to watch the performance and give signals to the engineer. The pin may be pulled on the first section before commencing to back; then the pin-puller stands by to make the second cut. The engine starts back until there is way enough on the first cut to carry it into its switch; then at a signal the engineer shuts off, and the dead engine, acting as a drag, holds back the main part of the train, while the cut-off cars roll on ahead to their switch, which the man who is stationed there opens, allowing them to run in, and closes it after them. The engineer, on signal, now gives her another jerk back, the pin-puller pulls the pin, and when there is way enough on the second cut to carry it to its destination, the same performance is gone through with again, this time the whole of the remaining train and engine passing over the closed switch to its destination further up the yard.

With men enough—provided there is no grade to stop the cars from rolling—cars could be sent into all the switches along the line, without the engine stopping at all; but in this case the conductor only had one man, and when he told him what he intended to do, the "brakey" remonstrated, saying, "Ye'll have them all over the carpet."

The conductor, however, told him to mind his own business, and ordered him to open the first switch, and then run to the next, saying that he would close it himself after pulling the pin. But when he ran in a hurry to close it, he stumbled over the end of a tie, so that before he got it closed, the forward truck of the leading car had entered the siding, and the switch being closed, the cars went off the track. Seeing them going in all directions, he desired to set a brake to hold them, when, in jumping up between two flat cars, one corner rose above the other, and shearing across it clipped him in two, as a lady snips a thread with her scissors.

The engineer was discharged for allowing me to handle the engine, and for many