Story submitted by E. F. Cook
And now, I want to interject a bit about the engines that hauled the loaded log cars from "the front", as the log woods were referred to, into the sawmill in Urania. Not knowing for sure but logically, the first mainline locomotive acquired by the company would have been numbered one since the two subsequent ones were numbers two and three. And the engineer for number one was Jake Posey; I guess you could call him the "Urania Casey Jones." On the morning of August 10, 1917 Jake and number one headed to Hinton Camp with a string of empty log cars and aboard the train with him and his fireman were Mrs. Pallie Peevy and her three young sons Harold, Wilburn and Lawal O. How thrilled those three youngsters must have been to be able to ride to Hinton and back with that fabled engineer, Jake Posey! They were to spend the day with Pallie's sister, Nora Allie Peevy Hinton, wife of Grady Hinton, Sr. and return to Urania with Jake on his second run in the afternoon. As heretofore stated, Grady ran the commissary (company store) at the camp.
In 1917, the NU & R did not have a Y side track in order for the engine to turn around: absolutely necessary turnarounds were accomplished by getting on the Missouri Pacific (now Union Pacific) lines from the connecting siding in Urania and going to Rochelle, there using the Tremont and Gulf Y turnaround. Then again time and money and in addition, making arrangements with Missouri Pacific for permission and times to travel their rails probably was the reason that Jake's request to do that was denied. Consequently, it was necessary for him to travel one of the ways to or from Hinton backwards.
It has been reported that Jake was ticked off about that to begin with and also, there were more loaded cars than normal waiting to be picked up. So he hooked onto the loaded cars with the front end of his engine, loaded up Mrs. Peevy and her three sons and headed for Urania. On the line from Urania to Hinton there was a place called The Kansas City Cut and the reason for that name was a large object was being hauled to the front and in this cut, it was too narrow for the object to pass so the right of way had to be widened at that location. At the cut there was quiet a steep grade and Jake had poured on the steam in order to get over it and as he approached it, the tender which was ahead of the train began to sway from side to side and then jumped the track. That caused the engine to also leave the track and overturn, trapping Jake, Mrs. Pallie and her three sons in it; the boiler burst and scalded the four of them. The fireman, one Willkie Coleman saw what was happening and jumped clear and was basically unhurt. Incidentally, Willkie is the man standing in the cab of the Shay Engine featured earlier and the man on the ground in that picture was John Buckley who later was an engineer on the mainline trains for many years.
Mrs. Peevy and her three sons are buried in the Urania Cemetery in a common grave, the three sons are buried with their mother. I believe their names are on the side of the marker. Jake is buried at New Union Cemetery between Urania and Tullos.
Because of this event the company built Y's at both Urania and Hinton so the trains could always travel in a forward looking configuration.
"Thank you E.F. Cook for this bit of history."
And now, I want to interject a bit about the engines that hauled the loaded log cars from "the front", as the log woods were referred to, into the sawmill in Urania. Not knowing for sure but logically, the first mainline locomotive acquired by the company would have been numbered one since the two subsequent ones were numbers two and three. And the engineer for number one was Jake Posey; I guess you could call him the "Urania Casey Jones." On the morning of August 10, 1917 Jake and number one headed to Hinton Camp with a string of empty log cars and aboard the train with him and his fireman were Mrs. Pallie Peevy and her three young sons Harold, Wilburn and Lawal O. How thrilled those three youngsters must have been to be able to ride to Hinton and back with that fabled engineer, Jake Posey! They were to spend the day with Pallie's sister, Nora Allie Peevy Hinton, wife of Grady Hinton, Sr. and return to Urania with Jake on his second run in the afternoon. As heretofore stated, Grady ran the commissary (company store) at the camp.
In 1917, the NU & R did not have a Y side track in order for the engine to turn around: absolutely necessary turnarounds were accomplished by getting on the Missouri Pacific (now Union Pacific) lines from the connecting siding in Urania and going to Rochelle, there using the Tremont and Gulf Y turnaround. Then again time and money and in addition, making arrangements with Missouri Pacific for permission and times to travel their rails probably was the reason that Jake's request to do that was denied. Consequently, it was necessary for him to travel one of the ways to or from Hinton backwards.
It has been reported that Jake was ticked off about that to begin with and also, there were more loaded cars than normal waiting to be picked up. So he hooked onto the loaded cars with the front end of his engine, loaded up Mrs. Peevy and her three sons and headed for Urania. On the line from Urania to Hinton there was a place called The Kansas City Cut and the reason for that name was a large object was being hauled to the front and in this cut, it was too narrow for the object to pass so the right of way had to be widened at that location. At the cut there was quiet a steep grade and Jake had poured on the steam in order to get over it and as he approached it, the tender which was ahead of the train began to sway from side to side and then jumped the track. That caused the engine to also leave the track and overturn, trapping Jake, Mrs. Pallie and her three sons in it; the boiler burst and scalded the four of them. The fireman, one Willkie Coleman saw what was happening and jumped clear and was basically unhurt. Incidentally, Willkie is the man standing in the cab of the Shay Engine featured earlier and the man on the ground in that picture was John Buckley who later was an engineer on the mainline trains for many years.
Mrs. Peevy and her three sons are buried in the Urania Cemetery in a common grave, the three sons are buried with their mother. I believe their names are on the side of the marker. Jake is buried at New Union Cemetery between Urania and Tullos.
Because of this event the company built Y's at both Urania and Hinton so the trains could always travel in a forward looking configuration.
"Thank you E.F. Cook for this bit of history."
Story submitted by E. F. Cook
And now, I want to interject a bit about the engines that hauled the loaded log cars from "the front", as the log woods were referred to, into the sawmill in Urania. Not knowing for sure but logically, the first mainline locomotive acquired by the company would have been numbered one since the two subsequent ones were numbers two and three. And the engineer for number one was Jake Posey; I guess you could call him the "Urania Casey Jones." On the morning of August 10, 1917 Jake and number one headed to Hinton Camp with a string of empty log cars and aboard the train with him and his fireman were Mrs. Pallie Peevy and her three young sons Harold, Wilburn and Lawal O. How thrilled those three youngsters must have been to be able to ride to Hinton and back with that fabled engineer, Jake Posey! They were to spend the day with Pallie's sister, Nora Allie Peevy Hinton, wife of Grady Hinton, Sr. and return to Urania with Jake on his second run in the afternoon. As heretofore stated, Grady ran the commissary (company store) at the camp.
In 1917, the NU & R did not have a Y side track in order for the engine to turn around: absolutely necessary turnarounds were accomplished by getting on the Missouri Pacific (now Union Pacific) lines from the connecting siding in Urania and going to Rochelle, there using the Tremont and Gulf Y turnaround. Then again time and money and in addition, making arrangements with Missouri Pacific for permission and times to travel their rails probably was the reason that Jake's request to do that was denied. Consequently, it was necessary for him to travel one of the ways to or from Hinton backwards.
It has been reported that Jake was ticked off about that to begin with and also, there were more loaded cars than normal waiting to be picked up. So he hooked onto the loaded cars with the front end of his engine, loaded up Mrs. Peevy and her three sons and headed for Urania. On the line from Urania to Hinton there was a place called The Kansas City Cut and the reason for that name was a large object was being hauled to the front and in this cut, it was too narrow for the object to pass so the right of way had to be widened at that location. At the cut there was quiet a steep grade and Jake had poured on the steam in order to get over it and as he approached it, the tender which was ahead of the train began to sway from side to side and then jumped the track. That caused the engine to also leave the track and overturn, trapping Jake, Mrs. Pallie and her three sons in it; the boiler burst and scalded the four of them. The fireman, one Willkie Coleman saw what was happening and jumped clear and was basically unhurt. Incidentally, Willkie is the man standing in the cab of the Shay Engine featured earlier and the man on the ground in that picture was John Buckley who later was an engineer on the mainline trains for many years.
Mrs. Peevy and her three sons are buried in the Urania Cemetery in a common grave, the three sons are buried with their mother. I believe their names are on the side of the marker. Jake is buried at New Union Cemetery between Urania and Tullos.
Because of this event the company built Y's at both Urania and Hinton so the trains could always travel in a forward looking configuration.
"Thank you E.F. Cook for this bit of history."
And now, I want to interject a bit about the engines that hauled the loaded log cars from "the front", as the log woods were referred to, into the sawmill in Urania. Not knowing for sure but logically, the first mainline locomotive acquired by the company would have been numbered one since the two subsequent ones were numbers two and three. And the engineer for number one was Jake Posey; I guess you could call him the "Urania Casey Jones." On the morning of August 10, 1917 Jake and number one headed to Hinton Camp with a string of empty log cars and aboard the train with him and his fireman were Mrs. Pallie Peevy and her three young sons Harold, Wilburn and Lawal O. How thrilled those three youngsters must have been to be able to ride to Hinton and back with that fabled engineer, Jake Posey! They were to spend the day with Pallie's sister, Nora Allie Peevy Hinton, wife of Grady Hinton, Sr. and return to Urania with Jake on his second run in the afternoon. As heretofore stated, Grady ran the commissary (company store) at the camp.
In 1917, the NU & R did not have a Y side track in order for the engine to turn around: absolutely necessary turnarounds were accomplished by getting on the Missouri Pacific (now Union Pacific) lines from the connecting siding in Urania and going to Rochelle, there using the Tremont and Gulf Y turnaround. Then again time and money and in addition, making arrangements with Missouri Pacific for permission and times to travel their rails probably was the reason that Jake's request to do that was denied. Consequently, it was necessary for him to travel one of the ways to or from Hinton backwards.
It has been reported that Jake was ticked off about that to begin with and also, there were more loaded cars than normal waiting to be picked up. So he hooked onto the loaded cars with the front end of his engine, loaded up Mrs. Peevy and her three sons and headed for Urania. On the line from Urania to Hinton there was a place called The Kansas City Cut and the reason for that name was a large object was being hauled to the front and in this cut, it was too narrow for the object to pass so the right of way had to be widened at that location. At the cut there was quiet a steep grade and Jake had poured on the steam in order to get over it and as he approached it, the tender which was ahead of the train began to sway from side to side and then jumped the track. That caused the engine to also leave the track and overturn, trapping Jake, Mrs. Pallie and her three sons in it; the boiler burst and scalded the four of them. The fireman, one Willkie Coleman saw what was happening and jumped clear and was basically unhurt. Incidentally, Willkie is the man standing in the cab of the Shay Engine featured earlier and the man on the ground in that picture was John Buckley who later was an engineer on the mainline trains for many years.
Mrs. Peevy and her three sons are buried in the Urania Cemetery in a common grave, the three sons are buried with their mother. I believe their names are on the side of the marker. Jake is buried at New Union Cemetery between Urania and Tullos.
Because of this event the company built Y's at both Urania and Hinton so the trains could always travel in a forward looking configuration.
"Thank you E.F. Cook for this bit of history."
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