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I agree things like broken knuckles are a lot less common than in the past. If they called a news crew out every time my old "buddy" Harold Carney broke a knuckle, it would have been a full time bureau. From the Zeigler #2 mine to the north yard at Christopher, the right of way was littered with artifacts from his "throttle artistry". I remember one day, near the end of steam, when he outdid himself. He had about forty loads coming up the hill at Zeigler Junction (about 1%), when he made a heavy service application for the junction switch. He absent-mindedly kicked off the engine brakes, opened the throttle and
promptly lunged the first car behind the engine, (wrong end of course). Yes, an O-1A could do that without slipping a driver. His lame excuse was that the switchman gave him a "come ahead". The remedy in those days was to chain up the car and take it to the Christopher rip track. Harold was not a very popular person and to add a personal note I found him to be an unpleasant man. Trainmen and switchmen hated him. His firemen hated him. And his fellow engineers hated him. When he was in the Centralia North Pool, anytime he was called for a run "going west" (over the B&O to St. Louis), he would mark off. Finally, the engineer next out preferred charges against him
in the BLE Lodge. That made a believer out of him because if they kicked him of the union, his job was gone! __._,_.___
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