A Runaway Car
Leaves Freight Yard Mysteriously
(From Branchville Corespondent.)
About 5:30 o'clock Saturday morning as operator Frank
Hagaman at the Augusta Station arose from his slumbers to enter upon
his daily routine of work, to his amazement he discovered a box car
standing on the main track just west of the depot. Upon investigation,
he noticed that the breaks [brakes] on the car had been loosened,
and after taking the number of the seal at once reported the matter
to the Hoboken Authorities. Where the car came from was a mystery for
a time, but this was cleared when Harry Clark, the freight agent at
the Branchville Depot, put in his appearance around the curve. He had
missed the car, and a forced switch disclosed the fact that it had passed
out on the main line, so he started out on foot in search of the wanderer.
Harry was traveling under full steam and reached the Augusta station
in time for the early morning train from Newton, in charge of Conductor
Bagshaw, who was notified of the car, and pushed it back to Branchville.
The course taken by the car is slightly down grade, and it is claimed
that while it stood in the Branchville freight yards the breaks [brakes]
were known to have been securely set. That it should start out on this
long journey seems incredible.
[For the record, I know how to spell 'brakes', but apparently the
author of this article did not.]