Tensas Gazette

AN UNLUCKY MAIL CAR.

No. 800 Is a Veritable Terror to the Erie Railway Men.

Railroad men, as a rule, are far from being superstitious, but there is a certain mail car on the Erie railroad which trainmen always dread to have on their train. This car, which is regarded with such a superstitious dread, is mail car No. 800. On account of the aversion to it, this car is kept at the shops, except when it is absolutely needed on the line. This car, according to the Chicago Tribune, has a record which perhaps no other car in existence can equal. Not this car alone, but all its predecessors bearing the same number have met with disaster. In the great disaster at Tioga Center thirteen years ago, mail car No. 800 was wrecked and burned. A new No. 800 was soon after built at the Jersey City shops. After being in a number of minor wrecks, it went down the steep bank at Shohola a few years ago in one of the worst wrecks the road has ever experienced. The remains of this ill-fated car were burned and a new one bearing the same number was built at the Buffalo car shops. For a short time the bright, new car ran from one end of the road to the other in safety, and the trainmen began to lose their fear of it when it was in their train. Its luck was short-lived, however, and it has been in nearly every serious wreck the road has had since. A little over a week ago train No. 12 ran off the track at a switch. As was expected, this car was on the train. Recently there was a wreck near Lackawaxen. A railroad man at that station the day of the wreck, in talking to some passengers, said: "I'll bet 800 was in the train." When the train had been put on the track and pulled slowly into the station the railroad man said: "There, I told you so." Sure enough there was the mail car with the unlucky 800 in big figures on its sides. These three figures are a terror to every man on the road, and until the car is laid up for good the railroad men say frequent wrecks may be looked for.