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Waring Ride of 55Vz Miles in 50 Min-
W'Utes en Engine of "Beard walk Flier"
?& Proves Exhilarating Example of
i-fV'h, uru. ;; rne c,
"QltUTf J rr tAvfg uvrtittji. vj kjjuvc
and Laggard Minutes
farERAN OF RAILS HOLDS
Mmlyte THROTTLE WHILE
$NDSG4PE IS A MERE BL UR
. t
? TV
fyimy Face and Wind-Swept Tresses
VYCetnpensaiea rer wnen journey te
Atlantic City Is Completed Ahead of
r, ,. a Ail r. rr-.iLJJ r
7r lime siii in a uay s worn is
YK Nonchalant Attitude of Trainmen
1 , . ,.,..,. .
By SALLY LOCKWOOD
JiHETY miles an Tieuri
JN iianging out the window of a locomotive cab, where no ethor woman
ltd ever ridden!
A rush of wind and dust that turned te grime in the slinging pelt
(Irtinl '
, i Clamoring bell; shriek of the whistle; rearing of steam; het blast
frem the" firebox with, ever all, a. glorious feeling of flying en and en
UffOBjn pBinp, turn ejmm.b, nun muugin niituiug ui .
' ,Ahd,' at the end of fifty minutes, a qucerly shaded bluish-gray fact
that meant no complexion at all till scrubbing brushes had scrubbed their
bariest, " .
These were some of the sensations of my first ride in the engine caD
f,th "Boardwalk Flyer" a marvelous experience if you care nothing
for personal appearance or complexion.
In fact, by the time you are going
Jaetv miles an hour you are se ex-
hilerated that Hairpins and ceia
ewm mean nothing in your life
jb Just want te keep en moving
Hkt that forever.
At least. I was mighty sorry that
tlit '"fastest regularly scheduled
jatstngeTtrain in the world" didn't
go ninety, miles en hour the entire
dfy.flve miles' from Camden te At
lantic City, instead of just across
these flying miles of perfectly
itrtlfht roadbed that' He- en the
meadows.
Strange, isn't it, that the pas
stagers' can sit se calmly, back in
the coaches, reading their papers or
powdering their noses, without get
ting single thrill ever the speed
the train is making? They would
ealy grumble if the Boardwalk
Flyer pulled in a minute late at At
Untie City.
ISqends Are rreaeus
i Watches Race On
t never before realized the tromen tremen tromen
tetnV importance of seconds. They had
beta merely trivial divisions of min
stM that never bothered trie. But when
wfwint a mile in lerty fcecends and
tM entire fifty-five miles in a trifle
note lhan fifty minutes; when I saw
a engineer and the read foreman of
teflnes and the supervisor of fuel con cen con
lenratlen, watches in hand, counting up
fte.Mcends our Journey had consumed,
I eWkleil as contentedly as they, end
Ml that te get into Atlantic City even
Hewdi before schedule tlme meant
neth.
lVhn my trip In the cab was being
planned aeerea came fevlh with augges-Ueu.'
'Wear knickers and old clothes and
We'll need goggles," said IlcadlngRall
nr officials.
Wear a bathing cap te protect your
11,' f Hid eeme one elite.
-Be ure te cover vnnr fnen with
wM ejeam befere you start" and "held
cljt, the cab rocks like everything
"" m weh't have a spring Heat. I
",, yen don't get seasick," and
Ulk te the engineer."
minute after we started I was
Uin ever the last injunction. The
IS?' hun out his window at the
"IM of the cab. I hun out of the
jMn window nt the ether Mde.
r'th the' constant ringing of our
Ml, the Intermittent shrieks of
2u t,e' the c,UI,l"K of lire doers
JHtneflrcman'H shovel, the rear of the
" and the sweep of wind and drla-
wait our faces, if I had shouted
"top of my lungs I think the en
"Hr probably would net even have
f"W me unless he had been listening
' ttl veir
laiimurh wiiii n-i.L. .
" """" "uunaser, renu
wjesti of engine, who served as my
w, bad explain,.,! te me the duties of
ntlneer, I really hed net expected
v auentlen from William Ilebert
JJjnlU, driver of the Boardwalk
;Wes keeping his hand en the thret-
'ii was un in him . u,.. u (...
C,t, . ' " l,ninc nil U'
g:a railroad creimlngu nnd blew the
?" Bl SUCh nloeoil! tn nnln tllH
Per anil miinm.iu .... i ,i
him uh... .1 . . .
te i. ""-r ,,,e irneu was cieur;
"JW the water level in the boiler ;
r 'W an e en tli.. t.m .,. n
Zwt valve if the Rteara pressure
'Z.if reat! en(l te wntch th ilr
,W tnat .hewed whether the pressure
editi suiclently te operate th
Wfm of Mania Bess
enormous Iren Steed
Mi fci superintendent of the
i r,iHhoire ,,lnM- had taken me
temilen train nhn.iy ...i. ... ....
,'f ,' er.l'ln" of the Boardwalk
il.B2?l8f,,,r"'.SB t was there thut
"! nuiinill.
with his long-speutcd oilcan he hnd te
Atnmt en tititoe te wnir the dark linuld
ever the Joints of his great race horse.
Beside the huge locomotive his slight
live-feet tigure looked like that of n
pygmy. Whrn he heard I wns te ride
in the cab with him, hi wiped his hand
en some waste und turned te shake
mine.
"I hope we give you a geed ride," he
smiled.
He hnd carefully inspected the engine,
an usual, nlthetigh he knew it was nl
wnyH straight from the roundhouse.
When the two quirk whistles sounded an
a signal te start, he was In his box and
opened the throttle en the instant. In
the tlrst mile, when wc were going only
thirty an hour, he made his running test
of the brakes, then gradually gathered
speed.
It was the firht day anthracite had
been tried en Engine 121, nnd the trav
eling fireman, as well n Jehn Kntrikln,
the regular fireman, was shoveling coal.
The ninety-seven square feet of fire
box had already been fed a ten nnd n
hnlf of oenl te get the Jocemotlve tn
working trim before we started, and
en the way te Atlantic City another ten
was fed In, shevelful by shovelful, as the
furnace ate It up.
Nearly 0,000 gallons of water hnd tn
be evaporated In that fifty-minute ride
with a locomotive weighing, mere than
273,000 pounds whining half a dozen
coaches along the rails.
J.ntcr en, in the summer, this same
englnu will pull a dexen or mere coaches
te the seashore at the same rate of
speed, consuming perhaps n trifle mere
coal and evaporating 0000 gallons of
water.
When we started the superheated
steam pyrometer In front of me regis
tered about three hundred pounds of
steam. When the speed was greatest,
the needle pointed te 702.
Flying, Poles Loek Like
a Leng Picket Fence
One of the trainmen had told me I
could Judge our speed by counting tele
graph poles forty te the mile. I
started bravely with wrist wntch out,
counting poles nnd seconds till we were
going sixty-five miles an hour. Then
fear, of becoming cress-eyed stepped me.
The peles seemed frightfully close te-
getner. ine wind nnd rain beat In mere
fiercely and the engine was noticeably
ruumiiK.
The fireman hnd clven m n hnnrifni
of brightly hued waste te protect my
nanus irum uic pu and dirt or the en
gine, but I forget thnt nnd clutched the
window ledge as we went faster and
taster.
It was a Joyous feeling. I began te
understand the. fascnutlen this tort of
thing litis for these trainmen. 'The en
nine seemed reallr nllve unu ..,
swlft-fllng, rearing beast thnt hnd been
iraiiuu 10 respena te uic sllgl)tpst caresa
or touch from the driver a hungry
monster that needed always te be fed.
At Plghty-flvH miles an hour (Mr.
Bnltlmser, standing near, was "keeping
score") I wus thankful I had worn a
naming cap. At ninety miles the cap
was blowing off and I was glad there
were mere hairpins In the traveling bag
back in n reach. The goggles remained
firm, up firm thnt I had queer white
rings about mv eyeu In the midst of a
mulatto complexion when we reached
Atlantic City.
As we Hew pnst stations and cross cress
ronds I sketchlly saw thut people
stared und waved. I mnnnseil tn im
a wad of waste fluttering In the breeze
e they would guess thut their saluta
tions were returned.
I marveled most at the train slg
mils, especially the automatic bleck-slg-mil
system thut serves te keep all the
truins u certmn uisinnce apart. At cer
tain times of the day in summer there
are as many as twenty-five trains run
ning en the Mime track between Camden
and the seashore with schedules only
live iiuiniti'H uunrt. Jl gemetninr enra
wrong with one train the entire line of
high-speed trains Is held up. But this
seldom happens,
"Perfectly built and perfectly kept
engines) expert and tried firemen and
engineers, and excellent track ure the
cscentlnls for high-speed trains," Mr.
Lewis had told me. "and everv nre-
caution Is taken 'wh.vb. The engineers
arc tee proud of their records te let
anything go. wrong if there is the least
chance te prevent It,"
The automatic signals are what keep
the trains from colliding, he'explulned.
The line is divided Inte blocks or sec
tions, and the entrance te each block
Is guarded by appropriate signals, When
the train wheels pass ever the track
they touch certain instruments or levers
and set In motion the clectrlcul opera
tions that move the signals,
When the signal shows green It means
that the line Is clear for two blocks
ahead ki the train may proceed at high
When green snows above yel-
flled but that the nest home signal will
be at "step," And when the red shows
above yellow It mead's that another
train Is en this block and also indicates
step.
The engineer knows these signals se
thoroughly that hlseycs catch the colors
mechanically as his locomotive whizzes
by. and his flnsers arasn the levers that
Increase or decrease his speed accord
ingly.
t
Ahead of the Schedule
Despite One Slowdown
Only once In our run did we have a
signal te slew down. That was at
the bridge Just this side of Atlantic
City, where repair work under way
made .caution necessary.
After the previous speed It seemed
we scarcely moved across the bridge
and only crawled into the station. But
we were ahead of schedule by, several
seconds.
The greatest speed was made between
Bide Ancher nnd Cologne seventeen
miles of-perfectly straight, clear road
bed where the ferns by the wayalde
seemed merely a carpet and the trees
entr long mass of green broken only new
nnd then by a splotch of color that
was house or barn or station.
"Did. you like it?."
The query came from hnlf a dozen
trainmen. When the swift Journey was
ended "Beb" HammlU smiled beneath
his sandy mustache and asked me te
ride again.
He was n's calm and detached as
though he had Just come from the corner
grocery store instead et from the en
gineer's box of the fastest train in the
world.
"Ne, I've never been afraid of any
thing In my life," he answered, and
smiled nt the question. "Wheri my
mother died at fifty-eight she had never
.been frightened In her We."
He wasn't boasting. He simply
doesn't knew what fear Is. His nerves
have been trained nftd hardened by
fnrtr.flrn vpnra nf railroad service.
Thirty-three of these years he has been
an engineer, most ei tnc lime arivmg
the fastest trains en the read.
Many men after years of preliminary
training fall te pass the final test that
puts them' Inte the fast drivers' class.
Mntiv nthnra rnflian tn nin fast trains.
LThey want their hands en the throttle
of only freight trains.
There nre still ethers who stand the
strain of the speedsters for n few years
then completely lese their nerve nnd go
heck te firing, or else te the throttle of
slew-moving locomotives,
Speeding Engine Is Pet
of Veteran Engineer
But "Beb" HammlU, wbe will be
sixty-four years old in October, only
smiles his calm smile, pats Engine 121
much as a wee confident lad might
stroke the biggest circus elephant with
which he has made friends, nnd admits :
"The faster they are the better I like
them."
In his forty-five years -with the rail-
can against accidents. Only recently
In a heavy rain we had te slew down en
our way te Atlantic City. I think It
was near Wlnslew Junction.
"Driving ngalnst a heavy ram, the
water poured 'across the boiler in sheets
and streamed down our faces. It was
almost Impossible te keep our eyes clear.
We Just had te slew down, and that
meant holding up all the ether trains
aleng1 the line behind us.
"Kvcry engineer hates te de that, and
he hates te pull Inte a station off sched
ule. On the ether hand, he Is always
blamed If anrthln.t sees wrong, se he
tries te be careful."
There was still plenty et tlm before
he would need te go ever the engine
with his oil can te see that it was fit
for the return Journey. ISxcept en spe
cial occasions, whrn there Is need for
an extra man, HammlU makes only this
one round trip a day te Atlantic City.
New he leaned against the rear wheel of
his locomotive, gloves off, oilcloth cap
pushed back and relaxed. He was lb
the humor for reminiscences.
Plenty of Roem Open
for Crack Engineers
He wns born In Ireland, he said, but
his parents brought hint te America
when he was an infant.
"When I was a lad," he went en,
"my mother told me I must either go te
school or te the Iren works. I wasn't
much for book's, se I chose the Iren
works. Then In 1877 I started work
with the railroad as water boy for a
'section gang,
"It is a long, hard training te get
into the engineer's box even new, and
In these days there wasn't much pay,
either. New the pay Is bigger because
all the boys want te be conductors In
stead of engineers. Nobody seems te
want the Jeb and the railroads can't get
men se easily.
"When my water-carrying Jeb with
the section gang ended I went into the
railroad shops and later started firing.
Thirty-three years age I was given my
first run and I have been driving en
glnes ever since."
The Boardwalk Flyer Isn't the first
train te go ninety or even mere miles
in nn hour. Hut it is the fastest reg
ularly fcheduled train.
Only last year J. Lewber Stokes, a
Philadelphia banker and broker, paid
$427 te have a special train carry him
from Philadelphia te New Yerk in
eighty minutes. The thirty-five miles
from Nesharalny Falls te Westen were
covered In twenty-eight minutes, un
average of one and a quarter miles a
minute.
Fer the 3.0 miles between Westen
and Bound Broek Junction only two
minutes were required, an. average of
1.05 miles n minute. The ninety-mile
run te Jersey City was made in eighty
minutes. The previous record for the
run was eighty-four minutes.
Even In 1008, trainmen say, there
were many trains that made ninety
miles an hour at times along their
routes. In that year W. II. Newman,
..c.
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"Beb" HammlU oiling up for his trip en fastest train in world
president of the New Yerk Central,
ordered slower train schedules brenue
of a wreck en a train from Menter,
O., te Chicago. However, he reversed
this order when he found that speed
had nothing tn de with the accident and
the Twentieth Century Limited contin
ued its clghteen-hnur schedule.
But there are still old trainmen who
can tell of problems that confronted
railroad experts of early Philadelphia
days problems that today eiiKineern
laugh at.
Railroad managers poured ,,,,',,,,, ,,,,,
ever reports of experts nnd questioned , tnllMi nj ,ur'iJ,
rucu tuner un i me iuiaimiii tu err
making engines burn eon I, pull truum
without setting them en tire, and tnku
curves without the slipping nf wheels.
When trains arrived nt their des
tination the same day they set out,
without the cnKlneers linviug been ar
rested for poaching " the preherves of
without less of life or limb, the towns
people turned out te marvel nnd ap
plaud. When a cog (.lipped or a tar
wns derailed, or nn engine fell apart,
it meant mnny deaths and it wasu't
an unusual occurrence.
The "Iteckct," which Is new en ex
hibition in the Columbia Avenue sta
tion nf the Heading, wnt one of a group
of engines which beaun te arrive In
Philadelphia in the winter of 1837 and
tnu spring of 18JJS j ears before "Heb "
. It weighed ubeut eight
nc its lite run a total of
810,104 miles.
When 25 Miles an Heur
Was "Real Whizzing"
It was considered one of the best
locomotives of its dnv nnd could take
a train along the read nt a speed of
various legislative jurli-dictiens, und twenty-five miles an hour, ltunning
it wns n simple job compared te pull
ing the throttle of the Boardwalk
Flyer.
The weed used as fuel was en the
platform beside the engine. The engi
neer and fireman en this primitive
engine were one and the same man.
There was plenty of time in these' days,
though, and it was net necessary te
atop the train te fire the boiler. There
was only ene lever and thnt was the
throttle.
When it was away ahead you get
full speed, and when It was pushed
way back you reversed. The engine
had four wheels, no driving reds and
no brakes. It had kerosene bull's eye
and n pep whistle.
"Beb" HammlU rejoices that he
doesn't have such an engine te drive.
lie lins seen great development in loco
motives even in his day. When the
Boardwalk Flyer was first put en he
was selected as engineer, and he is
mighty proud of the job.
Kvery afternoon, seen after 3:30
o'clock, veu enn find him in the yards
oiling nnd petting Knglne 121, getting
ready for the start te the shore.
He examines the gauges, tests the
brakes, nnd takes up the slack en the
throttle. Then he sits by the window
waiting for the two pept en his whistle
which nre n signal te start.
When he gets them he braces him
self, takes held of the throttle with
both hands nnd gives it the first notch.
Frem the time the train starts it does
net reduce its speed until it rwu'hes
the bridge this side of Atlantic City.
The locomotive is one of the newest
types, a Pacific engine, with electric
headlight and electric lights in the cab.
with bell ringer and tire doers operated
by Its own electric generator. Com
pared with some of the ether locomo
tives, it is low and heavy, built for
power nnd speed.
"Seme of the lighter engines enn run
just ns fast," said Hnmmlll, "but thc.v
couldn't pull the lead this does. New
that passengers demand pe much luxiirs
en the train, parlor and club cars with
every accommodation, It takes u heavy
engine te pull the weight. And then
the steel cars of today are much lienler
than the old
with."
Wants Sens te Fellow
in Dad's Footsteps!
Hnmmill is new third eldest en the
Heading's engineers' roster. He is
hoping that one of his sons will some
day fellow in his footsteps. The boy
is new making bis start in the railroad
shops.
"Beb" and his family have lived In
the same house in Gloucester for mere
than fifty years. His parents lived
there before him. New there nre his
wife and four children. His wife. Ilka
these of hundreds of ether engineers,
accepts "Beb's" job nnd its hazards
with a fortitude born of long schooling
and knowledge of the work. In the
early days It wan harder, for his hours
were longer nnd the risk grcnter.
Most of the train officials with whom
I talked had served their day in rail
road shops as firemen and engineers.
They knew their engines as the geolo
gist knows his most precious specimen.
They carried around pictures of their
favorite locomotives. They could tract
the evolution of the steam engine from
queer little runts up te the powerful
and massive machines that urc consid
ered best teduy.
And the faM.'Inatlen for trnins, with
all the noise and bustle nnd gay -colored
lights of the railroad yards, seemed te ,
hnve spread te the wives, tee. At least,
the.e I met seemed te love and te knew
thoroughly the trninmen's lore. Many
of them had ridden the engine beside
their husbands or swcetheurtH nt va
rious times,
A group of trainmen and several
women had stepped with me beside the
Heard walk Fljcr's locomotive te talk
"trains nnd shop," and by the time
HammlU had te begin his oiling task
nguln there were mnny ethers standing
near nnd stnrlng in our direction.
If the firemen and engineer were as
dirty nnd hungry ns 1 they welcomed
the home lights that evening. But be
draggled nnd hungry as I was, I found
myself counting telegraph poles as I
passed them in the trolley homeward
bound.
k.'l
I
Was ,,,""" ispecu. vtnen green snows buoys yei
'i, """ me engine and even mew it means umi mis macs is uuui-vu
ivy; ,
fend he has never been in n train
Wreck where any one wns killed.
"Once, In my early days as a fire
man, the engine 1 was riding Jumped
the track but the results were net seri
ous," he said, "And in a storm about
twenty-four years age my engine col
lided with another at Cedar Broek.
My engine turned ever en Its side
and I was thrown out of the cnb. A
broken left arm laid me up for about
seventeen weeks, but I guess that's the
only time I ever did get much hurt.
Ne passengers were Injured,
"It is much harder te drive at night
than in the day time, of course, ter
It Is mere difficult te see signals and
crossings. Ne, I've never worn glasses.
A fellow's eyes Just get trained te see
the things he ought te see, and mine
never have bothered me,
"If an engineer had any business te
get nervous nt all It would be during a
storm. Klther rain or snow Is pretty
bad, nnd when there Is lightning It is
even worse, It blinds jeu se you can
scarcely see slgnuls,
"What de we de in a storm? Just
slew down and take all precautions we
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The Reading's famous "121," which pulb the "fastest train In the) ttjerld" le Atlantic City every day
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