" RUN AWAY ENGINE ON THE MAIN LINE " Out.of control, with throttle wide .open, No.. 1206 roared down the track. This is the .exciting story of one of the wildest rides in railway history. Adapted/From Popular Science Monthly, 1961 10:29 P.M., on November 12, 1959, a warning bell sounded in HY tower over looking the sprawling terminal yard of the Jersey Central Railroad in Jersey City, New Jersey. Towerman Joe Hilinski looked up, startled. The bell shouldn't have sounded. No Trains were supposed to be moving in the yard. Hilinski spun around to his model board - the twelve foot track diagram on the wall, Not a track on the board was lighted. Then a tiny whitebulb lighted up on Track 9. Something was coming. Joe Hilinski peered out into the dark and Suddenly he spotted a dark mass, moving fast. As it neared he made out the shape a Diesel electric locomotive, with all lights out. He judged from the roaring sound that she was being driven at full throttle. "She's going to hit the detail," he gasped. This is a heavy iron wedge clamped to one rail Its job is to derail any runaway car before it can hit the main line. The locomotive came to the derail and the impossible happened She went right over it. Wheels sprang eight inches into the air and landed back on the rail. Then the engine blasted out on Main Line Track 3. Hilinski was stunned, he shouted an urgent, and seldom-used command into his phone: "Hold on Three" This was an order to stop all trains on Main Line Track 3 -a drastic step on a busy sixty-mile-an-hour thoroughfare. Two miles away, Joe's warning was heard by his brother, Frank Hilinski . Frank was assistant chief dispatcher, the night boss. "What's wrong?" demanded Frank. Joe's voice shook. "You have a runaway engine, travelling fast, all dark." "What way is she headeng" "West -- against traffic" . Frank Hilinski jumped up ,Six trains were rolling on the four main-line tracks within thirty miles of the terminal. The nearest was the east bound New York Clocker, a crack passenger express. She was on Track 1, 'coming fast and due to Stop in Bayonne in four minutes. The runaway on Track 3, next to Track 1, would slam through Bayonne just as passengers would be swarming over Track 3 to get to and from the stopped Clocker, the runaway engine would plough into the crowd . . . Frank quickly ordered Bayonne tower to try to stop the Clocker before she entered the station, He also phoned the Bayonne yards; There's a runaway engine coming your way," he told the startled Yardmaster "set Flairs" we don't know what's wrong with the crew." Perhaps the engineer had fainted, with his foot still heavy on the deadman's pedal. Maybe some prankster had stolen the engine, or a mad man was holding the crew at gunpoint. The phone rang. The Bayonne yardmaster replied back. "Your engine is No. 1706". Went by at 10:84. Never slowed down. Couldn't see any crew.' No.1706 was a huge, 123-ton diesel- electric workhorse assigned to yard duty.. At 10:35 the runaway having covered four miles from HY tower in five minutes, charged without warning through Bayonne station. The Clocker was now stopped safely outside the station. Passengers waiting to board her heard the ghost train coming and drew back in fright. No one was hurt. The crew of the clocker were astonished to see an engine, all dark, roar past on the wrong side and vannish into the night. In the next ninety seconds, Frank Hilinski did some fast thinking, The chart Showed No 692, a freight train, was rolling east from Bound Brook. The runaway would meet it in a head-on collision in about 18 minutes. Hilenski had to get No 692 on track three somehow , he turned to a two-track line called the Perth Amboy Branch, it swings away from the main line at a busy junction known as E'port short for Elizabethport but both branch lines were blocked. A Pennsylvania seashore express was speeding north on Track 1. A Freight was plodding South on Track 2. However, it would be thirty minutes before the runaway could Overtake the freight train. Hilinski decided to play for time, he ordered E'port tower to send the runaway hurtling down down the branch on Southbound Track 2. - .... ~ Hilinski now phoned Division Superintendant Joseph Galuppo , at home who was awakened by the call, is a normally calm man ,he became in the next half hour a nervous wreck. Hilinski told him what was happening, should he ,he asked, open the Raritan River Drawbridge and dump the Engine into the river "No roared Gallupo" ,barges filled with propane gas used The Baritan an engine smashing into one would cause a terrible explosion. A voice on the speaker broke in ,it was E'port tower: " Runaway by here, passing her from Main Line Track 3 to Branch Line track 2 ". Sudenly Superintendant Joseph Galuppo had a stunning idea , he was still on the phone with Hilinski "Get hold of Jeffrey" he said,Ed Jeffrey was Trainmaster at Lonbeach , New Jersy. At this moment the big freight train on Branch Line 2 was aproaching the Raritan Drawbridge , 15 Miles South. In command of her Engine was Chet Cudmunson a small white haired man. Also riding the engine Were Fireman Harold Johns and Head brakeman Leo Barry. At the bridge Cuduamson saw a waving lantern. He braked to a stop. The bridge Captain Shouted, "Your engineer is wanted'on the phone in a hurry - jeffrey's caling" Cudmunson climbed down and ran to the bridge phone. Trainmaster jeffrey's voice said, "Don't say a word just listen. Seconds count, Jeffrey said that a runaway was coming" "We'd like you to cut off your Train and proceed at once to the straight track at South Amboy. We will switch the runaway from track two to track one to go around your stopped train then back to track two -- then back to Track One so she's behind you. When you see her coming up behind, match her speed and slow down, let her bump you then slow down,and force her to stop. Well stop the seashore express'at South Areboy. Gudmunson knew he was being asked, not ordered to do the dangerous job it was beyond the call of duty. He didn't have to risk his life. Neither did Johns or Barry. Cudmunson talked with them for a few seconds, They'd all go. By this time Hilinski had all towers on a single phone circuit up and down the line everyone heard these reports in quick succsesion the : lO:53; from South Amboy to tower: "Cudmunson passing southbound at ten miles an hour." then at l0'.54,. from Barber tower: "Runaway by here fast on Track Two:Speed is 45 Miles an hour" .10.55 from Woodbridge Tower "I just switched Runaway over to Track one,She neerly dumped,but she made it". Then, at 10:58, from South Amboy tower disturbing news :"Gudmunson has Stopped" at this moment, the runaway was only a Mile behind . Cudmunson was worried, He had proceeded one half mile to the straight track at Amboy as suggested ,then desperate for more information he had stopped at trackside telephone ,breakman Barry went to the track phone for instructions,there had been no time for the Voice at the bridge to tell Gudmunson one important fact. The runaway was running dark. So three crewmen, staring back into the blackness of an empty tunnel through which they had just passed, were watchin for somethiug they would never see a headlight. At the Raritan Drawbridge the crew of Cudmunson's train were mystified at being left behind by their Engine Suddenly they heard a roar behind them ,at 10:57 the runaway screemed past them On Track 1 and across Raritan Drawbridge. Ahead of the runeway a Switch slid and locked. The runaway's speed tape later showed that she hit 10 mile per hour Switch at Forty Six MPH. She lurched and leaned over hard then she made a slamming turn and settled down on the South Bound Track 2. The pasenger train was now safe But, the runaway was only a half mile behind Gudmunson. Ahead, to the south Gudmunson could see the Express laying in South Amboy Station Wlth her headlight blazing ,nomaly it would have been dimned. Gudmunson didn't know that the engineer had been ordered "Keep your Headlight on and light up the Runaway". Peering at the darkened tunnel Gudmunson suddenly saw the faintest glimmer of light - The dim reflection of the passenger trains lights on the runaway, The Engine was right on them !! Johns shouted for Barry as Gudmunson reached for the throttle, a Diesel builds up power slowly you can't rush it Gudmunson eased the lever back an inch ,then he gave her quarter throttle and she began to roll ,within ten seconds he risked Half throttle the engine shook,when the speedo showed 30mph he used full throttle. They flew past the express in South Areboy Station. Just ahead lay a sharp S curve. "I've got to do it now," Gudmunson decided With his speed at sixty, he began shutting down and valving air. The runaway was dangerously close, Barry thought Gudmunson slowed too much. He !shouted, "'Hold on hard - it's going to ram us " Gudmonson yanked the throttle open- but too late. The collision was deafening. Steel motor- hood doors all along' the engine's catwalk burst open.' Barry and Johns were slammed into their seats. The couplers had met and locked. Gudmunson shut off power, but was afraid to apply hard brakes. His engine might cartwheel in front of the heavier runaway. Johns, holding the handrail, crept back along the rocking catwalk. The heavy steel doors torn of them- kept slamming in his way. Flash light in hand, he closed each door. Then he swung to the other engine and into the cab. There was no one there. He flashed his light on the controls. Everything was perfectly set for running: throttle pulled back full. air brakes set for running. The isolation switch- which can cut generator power from the wheel motors- was on. Johns shut the throttle and heard No. 1706 die. Then he set the. brakes and flipped on the cab light. Instantly he felt Gudmunson apply full braking power to limlt the runaway. The two engines slid to a stop in a cloud of hot sand and smoke. Gudmunson proceeded to the nearest phone. He lifted the receiver. And, all along the line from Jeffrey at Long Branch up to Joe Hilinski at Jersey City, they' heard his :voice: "This is Gudmunson. We got her." "How's her crew?" someone asked. "Crew said Gudmunson. "She's got no crew. She's a ghost." The mystery is still unsolved. The FBI and New Jersey's-Public UtiBties Commission inves- tigated at once. They found that the runaway had been parked, awaiting a new crew. Her en- gine had been idling because of the cold weather. The locomotive had taken off within two minutes of the time her crew left her. What happened 'in those. two minutes? Several theories were considered- and explored. Had someone tried to steal or wreck the engine There were no clues, no fingerprints. Besides, it would have taken an expert to know the complicated starting rocedure. Had the throttle vibrated open by itself? This has been known to happen on some engines. But tests showed it couldn't have on No. 1708. Even if it had, 'who shifted the engine from neutral into gear? Who released the air brakes? Who put the isolation switch on 'Run"? Had the runaway been carelessly parked? All the men on her crew,had good records. They said they had carefully gone through the eight step shutdown routine. - One good resulted Safety locks were put in all Jersey Central engines. Locked in neutral, an engine could be started ,but Not moved. No. 1708 had ,covered twenty-two miles in a frightening adventure that lasted exactly: thirty six minutes. You can see her today. plodding the yard at Jersey City. She looks like such a good,contented engine- you'd never guess that she once gave one of Amnerica's finest railways a bad a fright it will never forget. See Site Map at : StrIslMap.jpg http://www.trainweb.org/mystation/StrIslMap.jpg