Engineer Edens Story

A Cowan Locomotive Engineer's Journal Entry (circa 1918)

Transcribed and interpreted by Tom R. Knowles, Jr. Cowan, Tennessee, April, 2012.

Prelude: The entries in this journal were made by S.A. Edens (Sam) as he worked different steam locomotives in and out of Cowan, Tennessee during early 20th century. He would have carried this booklet with him at all times and recorded his activities while working as engineer. Other interesting facts were also entered, as he deemed important to his work.

The first entry is on the inside cover with his name, position and where he worked along with a notation that on December 28, 1917 the “U.S. takes over the R.R. today at 12 noon” and that President “Woodrow Wilson (was celebrating his) 61st birthday”. The U.S. takeover of the railroads was known as the “McAdoo Era”, as Mr. William Gibbs McAdoo (Wilson’s son-in-law and Secretary of Finance was put in charge of temporarily nationalizing all the nation’s railroads in an agency known as the United States Railway Administration (USRA). This changed the way many things operated on our railroads at the time and have had lasting effects on all US railroads ever since. The McAdoo era ended on March 1, 1920.

The next page holds the story of “Holman Jernigan stabbed William July 8 (1918?) Monday”, then “…came out of Hospital Saturday, July 20th” then the notation that “William left for camp Oct. 27, 1918, reported at Winchester at 1P.M. took train for Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, South Carolina”.

Mr Edens was employed first as a fireman then locomotive engineer on the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway (NC&StL Ry). His first entry in this book as engineer is December 23, 1917 and he is driving engine number 901 that at the time was nearly new and the largest engine on the property. Listed also as crew were H.B Montgomery and C.M. Looney. The jobs that shift were, “Pushed No. 95 –Ex (extra) north, no. 92, no. 44”. This was typical of all entries in this journal except for when things did not go as planned, which was often.

For instance, two entries down, Mr. Edens is today (Christmas Day, 1918) in charge of engine number 413, a class H5 Consolidation with two pilot wheels and eight driving wheels. This engine was capable but small for the heavy wartime tasks common by 1918. Mr. Arthur Cowan was his fireman and he notes that the “crown bolts are leaking when I got her from Mr. Billings (?)”. The 413 is never again found in this log book as this is a serious boiler defect.

Different types of engines were stationed at Cowan as Pushers (freight trains) and helpers (Passenger trains) and these differing engines were at a time when all railroads were exploring new and better ways to build steam engines. Also, the United States was involved in World War One and there were heavy demands on trains and crews for transport of people and war supplies, especially through Central Tennessee. It was a daily fight to get trains across the low spot in the mountain where the Cumberland Tunnel lay, also known as Montgomery Gap. Here the railroad has risen to 1147.3 feet above sea level from Cowan’s nominal 940 feet, then fell on the other side out into the Crow Creek Valley where Tantallon and Sherwood lay at approximately 650 ft. Immediately outside the tunnel on the southward side was a place known as Rockledge, where there was a passing track operated as double track (an operational peculiarity of that section) and further south a safety or “runaway” track installation. The entire 8+ mile-long operational district from Cowan to Sherwood is still known as the “Cumberland Mountain Tunnel and Pusher District” and has its own set of operating rules because of the dangers and difficult terrain.

Of particular importance are the names of the men involved in this operation, most of who still have descendants living in this area. The railroad provided excellent employment in all sorts of tasks and it was usually a family affair. Thus you see many surnames that are the same with different initials. Rarely was a man known by his given name, but rather by either his initials, or his nickname. Officially, the initials or one first or second name was used, such as in this journal. What is difficult to detect are the names of people related by marriage, or Uncles and Cousins who had different last names and yet were related. Nonetheless, so many were related that on this particular railroad, the road earned its own nickname in the industry. It was known simply as “Grandpa”, or later as “Grandpa’s Road.” Everything on the railroad and seemingly everyone had a nickname.

It is interesting to the student and fan of steam locomotives that so many types and sizes (and ages!) of steam engines were kept and serviced in and operated out of Cowan. The Behemoth “900’s” capable of crushing a caboose from its sheer strength of pushing power (tractive effort or “T.E.” of  99,000 pounds, essentially the power of two locomotives) became the mainstays. There were three of them, all built by Baldwin in 1915 specified exactly for this job on the District. These were wheel arrangement of 2-8-8-2 and designed so the front engine part could move back and forth under the huge boiler (articulate), an aid in negotiating the many curves on the District. In addition, there were an assortment of ageing small “Consolidations” of the 2-8-0 wheel arrangement, plus some newer 2-8-2 “Mikado” (nic-named “Jitneys” by the crews) type that had become surplus on mainline runs because of the recent delivery of larger, faster engines with more power that ran here.

There were a multitude of other assignments of crews and engines everyday that had nothing to do with the pusher duties. Short trips to retrieve cars or switch the yards in Cowan, Decherd or Sherwood were common. For pushers and pullers, apparently, it was not always known exactly what a train totally weighed when it was dispatched, so when it left Cowan with a pusher on, often the train stalled on the mountain as noted “on account of heavy train” or, “lack of, or wet sand”. Sand was carried on locomotives to increase traction on sometimes-slippery rail and wet sand does not flow freely. The pressures to perform were constantly aggravated by over work, mechanical failures and adverse conditions.

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