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got clear. The runaways hit the locomotive at full speed, and a block of granite went clean through the firebox, the whole rear of the locomotive being completely stove in.

(4) In a runaway of a whole train, one car somehow jumped clean out of the middle of the train, cleared the right of way and shot across a farmyard and through a chicken coop, the farmer's wife having just left the coop, and the two sections of train left on the track coupled up and proceeded on their rampage, winding up without mishap after coasting up and down a couple of grades.

It was curious to hear all this talk from the men. They took me up to the highest spot on the "hill," the tip end of the Wetmore-Morse scrap pile where we had a magnificent view of the whole countryside, and there was Barre lying way down there in the valley, so far below it seemed impossible we had come up on a railroad unless it might have been a rack job. At the very end of the track overlooking an abyss of jagged granite was a scrap car in which the blocks had become jammed and a couple of men were in the car preparing to [[underlined] dynamite [/underlined]] the rock in the car to get it out. We went up to the Pirie quarry, where they have the best stone, and marveled at the yawning abyss carved there in the mountain top, and at the beautiful even white stone sliced out in enormous layers. At Wetmore-Morse they were working on a single piece for the Chrysler Mausoleum roof that will weigh about 100 tons - expect to have it out in July; that is, they work for a month on a big stone like that to get it out.

Coming down the mountain, I got an eyeopener when they whipped the train up to about 35 MPH through a "sag" in order to clear a switch where they were picking up a car. That made the standard 20 MPH industrial loco. look very doubtful. And the trip down the hill with 16 cars of granite gave the crew an opportunity to give as nice an exhibition of plain and fancy handbraking as I have ever seen, jumping around over cars loaded with swaying granite blocks, etc. They said in the winter, when the blocks are sometimes icy, it is really good.

When we got back to Montpelier at noon Putnam was still away, so we made a date for Monday with him, and drove to Proctor where we missed Keefe. On to Rutland where I got a bus (!) for Albany and Neil drove east. Dinner at O'Connors at Albany & an upper berth to Erie.