Tell him about the time he went in the Ohio River.
Well it was coming east on 78 and we got up to speed 65 mile an hour and then we shut
off at a certain railroad crossing for that to go through the town at a restricted speed.
But as we're coming up my Breitman Corke Whitley said there's a truck on a track and about
that time I heard the dispatch he said number 78 I'd already put it in emergency and a lady
lived across the highway over there she seemed what was happening and it happened before
and she called a dispatcher I called it down there and she's so excited we ask her about
it and she's so excited it's that I tried to tell him what but I asked him to eat say well
slow down I can hear you but I had she been calm to start with we probably would have got stopped
but we didn't so we hit that truck and Corke was over behind the Breitman I said I started to
sit there because I'd hit a truck before but I thought about a two before going up and coming
in that glass and I just last second behind him and when it hit I just said to myself I was
like boy you're going to know how I river I was talking about the truck but it didn't it stayed we
went straight up turned over on its left side back on its right side back on its left side then
hit the ground and sit down into the river no it was the
84 or 8 or 85 about 82 it probably was 1982 at Hanging Rock O'Hive
and so we went into the river and it took me two years to figure out I had to pass out for two or
four hours and I was down under that mud and water I didn't know what I said the first thing I thought
of was these minors when the top falls it bashes them up and I said I was a calm as I could be and I
said well I'm going suffocate and I never did want to suffocate talking about slate falls so I give
a turn I didn't break loose and I had one breath left I took it I could give a turn I did break
loose it's just like glue and when I I couldn't see it's covered up mud but when I could see a little I
seen corky walking around and water up to his neck and I could see as I heard his ahead hit that
break stem when when we first hit and I seen blood and he says my head something I said all
corks that's just a scratch I seen it then I said you you're okay and I kept on I got him got one
window open it was raining and it's in December the third and raining and cold and I got him out that
window and I went out there and I said he says how about going back in there and getting my suitcase I
could see it floating around in the water and I said all corks could just leave it will care about
that he's of my billfolds and he carried his billfold and he always had about five hundred dollars
then so I brace this feet on that break cylinder little cylinder I said now corky if don't you move
if you move and go in I can't get you out you'll be gone and I brace I said I'll go get it
and I was in an awful shape anyhow but I did go down and I could see it floating around that suitcase
and I got it and I put it out I crawled my last breath I had I just fell over a half way out
and after I got so I could breathe I got the rest of the way out and I said now corky
we heard a little airplane I say they're looking for us that airplane is
a port with over there a little airport and he said I said wave your arms I couldn't do that
the he was waving his arms and the hollering it went on went by I said well he didn't see us
I said we'll just have to sit here and don't you move so
after a while the conductor and the flagman walked from a rear to the head end to the wreck where
we were and they took ropes big rope and put a piston to us and tied it and when corky went out
first then they just sit back to be in us I tied it around and just jumped off in the water
and I went down this two or three foot of mine and I thought was that deep I come out of there
and they pulled us out and it took us up through them box doors was just like an A shape
we walked into a Curtis on stretchers actually they didn't know we was down there till
they thought we was somewhere else but when they did find us then the Curtis up there
and I never seemed such a mess that we were in and there was a
it put us through that truck and it started cutting our clothes off of us and it's one of them
was a woman and I felt shame to believe it or not I had read it on the world
no one knows that but I did it's a story today in a paper about read underwear
but I had that on I thought oh lord that woman she wasn't bending to the blood
mud glass was cut all the pieces glass everything I had all the little boots they were full of glass
and I was they took all everything off of us but it's in an ambulance and took us to the hospital
first when they could get to and there's land on that table we was freezing to death the table
like that I said corky was I said corky now we're going to be alright if I start going to
my spray he's going to go in shock and we were so cold it wasn't funny as finally I remember
the doctor said I'm going to send I'm going to put to you in one room and I said no I said
do you put me with corky or he'll go into shock I've kind of finally convinced him so after
a while the doctor came back and he says uh your body's broken bone and it's teak and his
sinuses is dripping into his throat and it's I'm going to have to send him to a specialist
they sent him to Huntington to a hospital and uh after I convinced him we need to be together
but they he said I have to send him to a specialist and then I remember I had a look like a thing
you picked walnuts with out of a thing and we're picking rocks out of my ear had a
one of them coffee cups star foam and they was picking gravel out of my ear
and it it was nearly half full of gravels was impacted in my head and I never seen such a mess
then my eyes was bothering me they put something in them and I don't know I I went straight up
out kill me and I said oh lord you've killed me and so he put blindfolds he blindfolded put
patches and everything impossible to see and people would come to see me and I'd say well I
felt sorry because his bright bright sunshine I guess and I'd say well in the world and I cut the
light on for them you know they give you some kind they got medicine take you any way you want to go
so I guess the pills they were giving me and I never did
hardly know where I was at and so eventually corkis daughter was a nurse she was a PhD in Pittsburgh
and she called some way and arranged for us to come to Bluefield and they said I almost
come down there and got me and corkis was in it they had arranged all that and they took us to
Bluefield so and then corkis you couldn't tie him down he stayed in there day after he said
he talked to him letting him go home I said cork you no shape to go home so he went home
next day is back in there he had some broke ribs and I forget what all I said I told you you
didn't need to go home and but you couldn't tell corkis home was home he had three or four broke
ribs and his eye and just terrible mess I stayed in there I don't know how long I said
and when we got there the hospital so full they put us in a hall where your entrance hall
and kept us out till I could get a room and then I guess they treated us for what
ever so many scratch and bruises we couldn't tell so corkis stayed till he got well and he
went home and I was still in there for a while and when they sent me to a high specialist
stepper a doctor can't water and he checked my eyes he says your eyes are okay I thought
that I didn't know what to think whether it's out of here or what with that medicine
gave it but he says your eyes is okay of course and that was a good feeling
and after we went back to work the first trip was down at Yeager as no whistleborne you know through
to crack so went through the gates first set right now I seen a trailer truck pulling a tractor
you know moving a big house trailer across the track at Lord Cross and I said look at that
court and was on the short end of it I said I'm going to take that trailer with us so I just
sit there and I blew the whistle it's emergency and I blew it he floored more that jerk that trailer
off we missed it about a foot but I knew that engine would take that trailer off and I said I'm
going to take that off I'm not putting this break on and I didn't but that's the first trip
and leave it or not well that's the end of the story I'm still here and I'm glad of that
I said you survived all that fly I survived that I survived a lot of things
I've been 32 years ago huh 32 years ago yeah I've had more night escapes on the railroad and on
automobiles airplanes everything I always figured keeping me here for something I don't know what
it'd be but I try to do what I ought to do
that's a lot of night escapes you anytime you're working on a railroad she's an air escape on
I'm going to tell you tell you all right I don't know what it looks to fly I'd like you like it
well I'll tell you I'll tell you a little tale about I hadn't been breaking very long I heard
19 closer okay start over all right July 1955 and I hadn't been breaking it a few months
anyway I was working out of all of you and they called me for the wreck cars it was
early in the morning probably two or three o'clock in the morning I don't remember exact time
but anyway when we found out we were where we was going it was going west towards Cedar Curve
at the between Yeager and Weebs and the passenger train had wrecked on Cedar Curve and went into
River the six it was a six hundred but I don't remember which one six thirteen I believe
but anyway when we when we got got there two Cedar Curve that six hundred was laying out on
its left side in the middle of the river and the the the engineer which if I remember right
his name was Walter Willard he was killed in that wreck he went but of course they had found his
body at that time I don't know when they found it but the fireman Ernie Hoback had it had thrown
him out of the cab to the edge and he said he told me later said it had covered him up with coal
and but anyway he got out and he got out on his own swam out the river
and I don't don't remember it but I don't believe Ernie was really injured he probably just bruised
up quite a bit but I don't think he had any broken bones but but Walter was scalded to death
Walter Willard and we worked all day around the wreck and I we got a break we wasn't doing
anything so I decided to walk up the track the westbound track to see how far the engine had
been on the ground or had been turned up track and I walked about probably a quarter mile back east
on the westbound track and in the process of walking I found a large washer and it
was the type washer that comes off of the of the the drive rods on the side of a steve engine
large washer probably three to four inches that diameter and it made with a concave
the center of it was concave were a nut would run up inside it and but anyway I I brought this
washer back and there was a gentleman there at the wreck and with a suit on I could tell and he
was a supervisor at some point but I didn't know who he loved the anyway I I was green and I took
I took that washer and told him where I had found them so that was the last I ever heard of what
happened to the washer but in remembered it and thinking about it later a little more experience
I figured I'd feel like that washer come off the drive one of the drivers on that 600 and that's
probably what caused the wreck and caused that the engine to go into river and Ernie Holtback turned
his hair turned completely white overnight after that experience because I went on with my rail
road career and didn't think too much about it after that but I didn't know I was going to tell
him a story 60 years later anyway that's that that was one of my first serious experiences on
the rail road
another narrow escape
Frank Smith a breakman he's back there in the dining room
we were working on this job Don was with us up at Harmon which is really steep
so he dropped some loads down Frank did and you never seen such a calamity
yeah
hey shorty tell us a good tell tell the man a good tale about what happened to you out there
did you tell him about running in the river that's right he just told me what you want me tell
what whatever you think of something unusual that happened to you out there telling about
whenever it just was coming you know what was going on tell about that time we lost radio after
how I worked with you for many years
I would tell him bad stuff