manager had sent a message that a special effort
was to be made to put the two trains through a-whooping, and I had
ordered engines 228 and 443, two of the best on the road, to pull them.
Burke, the second trick man had everything running smoothly at the time
I wrote the note, and I told Krantzer that, as it looked then, all he
would have to do would be to keep them coming. No. 13, a fast freight
south, had an engine that wasn't steaming very well, and I suggested to
him to put her on the siding at Manitou. It would delay 13 about fifteen
minutes but her freight was all dead stuff, so that would not make much
difference. I did everything but write the order, and that I could not
do, because I couldn't tell just what the conditions would be when the
extras reached Bradford, where they would receive the order.

Krantzer succeeded in getting them started in fair shape; but not
content to let well enough alone, he thought he would run No. 13 on to
Burnsides instead of putting her on the siding at Manitou as I had
suggested, and gave orders to that effect. After he had given the
"complete" he told the operator to tell them to "fly." If he had given
this same order for the meeting at Burnsides to the two extras, _at the
same time_, all would have been well, except that the extras would have
been delayed some fifteen minutes, but this he was unable to do.
Burnsides itself is only a day office, so he could not communicate with
them there, and they had already passed Gloriana, the first night office
south of Burnsides. The operator at Gloriana heard the order to 13 and
told Krantzer it was a risky thing to do; but he told him "to mind his
own business, as he (Krantzer) could run that division without any
help."

No. 13 was pulled by engine 67, with Jim Bush at the throttle, and he
was such a runner that he had earned the sobriquet of "Lightning
Jimmie." While he had reported early in the evening that his engine was
not steaming very well, he had succeeded in getting her to working good
by this time. Burnsides is at the foot of a long grade from the north,
and about a mile up there is a very abrupt curve as the track winds
around the side of the hill. The two extras were bowling along merrily
when they struck this grade; and although there is a time card rule that
says that trains will be kept ten minutes apart, they were right
together, helping each other over the grade. In fact, it was one train
with two engines, somewhat of a