At Kendallville, 42 miles from Elkhart, the speed, in spite of an
adverse grade, was 67 miles an hour. Here--the highest point on the
line above the sea--the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad crosses the
Lake Shore track at right angles, and a train was standing waiting for
us to pass--the engine shrieking its good wishes to us as we flew by.
At Waterloo, twelve miles further on, a clump of early pedestrians
stood in the street to gaze, and two women--wives, doubtless, of
railway hands who had learned what was in progress--were out on the
porch of a cottage to see us pass. And it must have been a sight worth
seeing, for we were running at 70 miles an hour now, with 60 miles of
tangent ahead of us. At Butler, seven miles beyond, we passed a Wabash
train on a parallel track, which made great show of travelling fast.
Perhaps it was doing so--moving, perchance, at 40 miles an hour. But
we were running at 72, and the Wabash train slid backwards from us at
the rate of half a mile a minute; and still our pace quickened to 75
miles an hour, and 78, and 79, and at last to 80. But that speed could
not be held for long.
The sun was above the horizon now, and the long straight column of
smoke that we left behind us glowed rosy-red; and all the autumn
foliage of the woods was ablaze with color and light. But as the
sunlight struck the rails the frost began to melt; and a wet rail is
fatal to the highest speeds. The 80-mile-an-hour mark, touched only
for a few seconds, was not to be reached again on this division.
During the next 47 miles, to Toledo, 64, 65, and 66 miles were reached
at times; and when for the second time the train came to a standstill
it was one minute after seven, and the 133.4 miles from Elkhart had
been made in 124.5 minutes--or at 64.24 miles an hour. This was better
than the run to Elkhart--and good enough in itself to beat the English
figures. But it was not what had been expected of the "air line
division," with its 69 miles of tangent and favorable grades; and,
taking the two divisions together, 220 miles of the 510 were gone, and
we were as yet, thanks to the frost, below the record which we had to
beat.
The time spent in changing engines at Toledo was 2 minutes and 28
seconds, and at 7.04.07 the train was sliding out of the yards again.
Coming out of Toledo the railway runs over a drawbridge; and boats
on the river below have right of way. But not on such an occasion as
this; for there, waiting patiently, lay a tug tied up to a pier of the
bridge, with her tow swinging on the stream behind her.
[Illustration: THE ENGINEERS WHO BROUGHT FROM CLEVELAND TO BUFFALO