FLIGHT OF FAST MAIL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 179, 27 January 1912, Page 10

FLIGHT OF FAST MAIL

■ THREE MILES. IN TWO MINUTES. i When the first really fast mail between Omaha and San Francisco reached livanston, Wyoming, at the foot of the Wastach Mountains, it was 50 minutes late. There it was met by a powerful engine, in charge of a reckless engineer, "Bill" Downing by name. Captain James E. White, ex-superintendent of the railway mail service, tells in his "Reminiscences" how "Bill" made up the 50 minutej. The distance to Ogden is 76 miles. "I shall not be happy," said Downing to one of the newspaper reporters who were to make the fun on this first fast mail, ■'till I have done that 76 miles in 72 minutes." When he drew the lever and opened ! the throttle/the train made a start that settled everybody's dinner; and once the train was fairly under way it seemed as if the curves on the line were all straightened out by the tremendous speed. Going down Weber Canon the pace was awful. "Three miles in two minutes!" gasped Captain White. But Downing did not reduce the speed. Downing the winding line of Tapioca Gulch the rear coach was swinging from side to side. You could hear the wheels grind on the curves, and feel the continuous striking as they bore first against one rail then against the other. Faster and faster the train swept along, roaring over bridges, tearing through tunnels, rocking round promontories. . Some of the newspaper men fainted through nervous exhaustion, and many of the other passengers had already succumbed. Suddenly, in rounding the reverse loop in Antelope Gap, the rear coach careened till it hung by one wheel on the rail. As soon as the moment of suspense was over, General Manager Dickinson sprang to his feet and called: "Pull the bell rope, quick, Brown, and run forward and tell Downing to stop this if he wants us to reach Ogden alive!" Then, not to risk another such second, the general manager sprang to the rear platform and twisted up the brake with all his might. The 76 miles of intricately curved track Was covered in 65 minutes. It was a hair-raising record, and several passengers w;ho went through the experience did not recover from the shock for a long time.