Of the various kinds of accidents that may befall a railroad-man, a
collision is the most dreaded, because, generally, the most fatal. The
man who is in the wreck, of matter that follows the terrible shock of
two trains colliding, stands indeed but a poor chance to escape with
either life or limb. No combination of metal or wood can be formed
strong enough to resist the tremendous momentum of a locomotive at
full or even half speed, suddenly brought to a stand-still; and when
two trains meet the result is even more frightful, for the momentum is
not only doubled, but the scene of the wreck is lengthened, and the
amount of matter is twice as great. The two locomotives are jammed
and twisted together, and the wrecked cars stretch behind, bringing
up the rear of the procession of destruction. I, myself, never had
a collision with another engine, but I did collide with the hind end
of another train of forty cars, which was standing still, at the foot
of a heavy grade, and into which I ran at about thirty-five miles an
hour, and from the ninth car of which I made my way, for the engine
had run right into it. The roof of the car was extended over the
engine, and the sides had bulged out, and were on either side of me.
The cars were all loaded with flour. The shock of the collision broke
the barrels open and diffused the "Double Extra Genesee" all over; it
mingled with the smoke and steam and floated all round, so that when,
during the several minutes I was confined there, I essayed to breathe,
I inhaled a compound of flour, dust, hot steam and choking smoke. Take
it altogether, that car from which, as soon as I could, I crawled, was
a little the hottest, most dusty, and cramped position into which I was
ever thrown. To add to the terror-producing elements of the scene, my
fireman lay at my feet, caught between the tender and the head of the
boiler, and so crushed that he never breathed from the instant he was
caught. He was crushed the whole length of his body, from the left hip
to the right shoulder, and compressed to the thinness of my hand. In
fact, an indentation was made in the boiler where the tender struck
it, and his body was between boiler and tender! The way this accident
happened was simple, and easily explained. The freight train which I
was to pass with the express at the next station, broke down while on
this grade. The breakage was trifling and could easily be repaired, so
the conductor dispatched a man (a green hand, that they paid twenty-two
dollars a month) to the rear with orders, as the night was very dark
and rainy, to go clear to the top of the grade, a full mile off, and
swing his red light from the time he saw my head light, which he could
see for a mile, as the track was straight, until I saw it and stopped,
and then he was to tell me what was the matter, and I, of course, would
proceed with caution until I passed the train. The conductor was thus
particular, for he knew he was a green hand, and sent him back only
because he could be spared, in case the train proceeded, better than
the other man; and he was allowed only two brakemen. Well, with these
apparently clear instructions, the brakeman went back to the top of the
grade. I was then in sight; he gave, according to his own statement,
one swing of the lamp, and it went out. He had no matches, and what to
do he didn't know. He had in his pocket, to be sure, a half a dozen
torpedoes, given to him expressly for such emergencies, but if he ever
knew their use, he was too big a fool to use the knowledge when it was
needed. He might, to be sure, have stood right in the track, and, by
swinging his arms, have attracted my attention, for on dark nights and
on roads where they hire cheap men, I generally kept a close lookout;
and if I saw a man swinging his arms, and, apparently trying to see
how like a madman he could act, I stopped quick, for there was no
telling what was the matter. But this fellow was too big a fool for
that even. He turned from me and made towards his own train, bellowing
lustily, no doubt, for them to go ahead, but they were at the engine,
and its hissing steam made too much noise for them to hear, even had he
been within ten rods of them. But a mile away, that chance was pretty
slim, and yet on it hung a good many lives. I came on, running about
forty-five miles an hour, for the next station was a wood and water
station, and I wanted time there.
I discovered the red light, held at the rear of the train, when within
about fifteen rods of it. I had barely time to shut off, and was in the
very act of reversing when the collision took place. The tender jumped
up on the foot-board, somehow I was raised at the same time, so that
it did not catch my feet, but the end of the tank caught my hand on the
"reverse lever," which I had not time to let go, and there I was fast.
The first five cars were thrown clear to one side of the track, by the
impetus of my train; the other four were crushed like egg-shells, and
in the ninth, the engine brought up. I was fast; it all occurred in a
second, and the scene was so confusing and rapid that I hardly knew
when my hand _was_ caught; I certainly should not have known where
but for the locality of the piece of it afterwards found. My pain was
awful, for not only was my hand caught, but the wood from the tender,
as I crouched behind the dome, gave my body a most horrible pummeling,
and the blinding smoke and scalding steam added to the misery of my
position. I really began to fear that I should have to stay there and
undergo the slow, protracted torture of being scalded to death; but
with a final effort I jerked my hand loose, and groped my way out. My
clothes were saturated with moisture. The place had been so hot that my
hands peeled, and my face was blistered. I did not fully recover for
months. But at last I did and went at it again, to run into the doors
of death, which are wide open all along every mile of a railroad,
and into which, even if nature does not let you go, some fool of a
man, who is willing to risk his own worthless neck in such scenes for
twenty-five dollars a month, will contrive, ten chances against one, by
his stupid blundering to push you.