Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume VI, Number 2, 11 May 1933 — MAGNET FINDS LOST LOCOMOTIVE [ARTICLE]

MAGNET FINDS LOST LOCOMOTIVE

. Lost—a 375.000-poi.ind loeomotive! One of the biggest freight engines in Pacific sservice yanished, recently, from ,a siding at a litt!e way-stat.ion jn California. When a n ain cloudburst sent a waU water roaring dow i the ravine, the crew of a fr'.ight traln leaped |ast in time to save their lives. The embankcrumbled before the on'slaught of the swirling waters. A secotid later, the locomotive toppled into the ravine. Watcherr> ori high ground saw it bumped along like a ehip, then disappear. When the flood had passed, a fresh-laid bed of siU eovered the stream bed and the epgine was nowhere to be seen. Railroad officials recalled a Los Angeles engineer had succes.«- f ully used a magnetic needle to find electric transformers in a Californla dam disaster some time before. He was commlssioned to find the loeomotive. Walking along the stream bed witli his needle in hand, he stopped at a point. where the needle jK>inted straight down. Steam shovels uncovered the locomotive 15 feet below the surface.' The salvage job, exclusive of repairs to the locomotive after it was towed to the shops, cost around 35 thousand d»llars.—P,S.M.