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cording to their destination, a brakeman would ride

one or several cars at a time down the hump. These cars would hit standing cars and couple up with them. The car that was to be joined to had a light hanging on it to help the brakeman judge his distance as he approached , so he could adjust his speed. This light was called a "bug." Once the new set of cars joined those standing, the brakeman would remove the lantern and place it on the end of the cars just added; this indicated to the next brakeman when to slow down and hook up. One night while making up a cattle train, a brakeman did not retrieve the lantern and put it on the back of the NEW last car. Two men were riding the next batch of six or eight cars, and were really rolling downhill, having been misled by the absence of the "bug" on the car ahead! They assumed that the train was quite a distance away. It wasn't, and the moving cars crashed into the standing cattle car, and both were broken up. Hogs, cattle, and sheep were running around town. Some had boards run through them and nails driven into them. One pig was recovered on C Street, Wenners Hill. The railroad called the abattoir in Frederick, whose representati ves shot the wounded animals, then took them to Frederick to dress them. The railroad called all the men they could find to round up the surviving animals and entice them to the cattle pens. Next day, those were on their way. One brakeman was moved to the hospital in Frederick and the other was treated locally at the B&O Emergency Hospital, being not too seriously injured. This was all caused because someone didn't bring the bug" back. S - Dutch Burns W - MMM

some unrelated and obscure subjects. SHOVELS

B&O used a lot of shovels; locomotive firemen stoked their fires with them, track gangs used them daily, as did those at the roundhouse , ash pits, car yard, and many others. Brunswick people also used shovels to put coal into home furnaces through the 1940's until oil heat became more prevalent. In the basements of the majority of local homes one could find a very sturdy scoop shovel which somehow found its way there and bore the branded imprint "B&O RR." SINKERS

When a train made an unschedule d stop along the railroad, the flagmen would go back a way to stop any following train. Before returning to the train, he would place two torpedoes on the track to alert the next train that one ahead had stopped and to look out for movement on the same track. Torpedoes sounded like a cannon shot and were loud enough for an engineer to hear them over the noise of his locomotive. They were a small explosive charge wrapped in heavy waxed brown paper measuring about two inches square, and were held to the track by lead ribbons about four inches long and 3 /8 of an inch wide. Upon detonation, all of the torpedo, except the lead, would disintegrate . Brunswick fishermen would walk along the track to retrieve the lead pieces and use them as fishing-line sinkers when trying their luck in the Potomac. Brake shoes from the B&O also made excellent boat anchors. SANDLOT BASEBALL

Brunswick never had a "sandlot" as such, but baseball was played by its you ngsters at just about every place imaginable. Any vacant lot or field, school playground , or even a city street, was the scene of scrub games in all the neighborho ods. During the lean times, when money for such nonessentials as baseball bats was tough to come by, a railroad brake club made an excellent substitute. Widely used by brakemen on the local humps and out on the road, this wooden club found much favor among Brunswick boys for their ball games. Not exactly circular like a store-bough t bat, but slightly oval, it was just about the same weight and length as a regular bat. It did the job very well, as many can attest. Besides, there was a good supply, and the price was right. The common denominato r in the

SHOVELS, SINKERS, AND SANDLO T BASEBALL Brunswick has appropriate ly been called a "company town". In cases such as ours where a single employer provides the economic base to the community , the influences of that employer are pervasive. Aside from the obvious role of providing jobs, there is an intricate interweavin g of the policies and actions of the "company" with every facet of the inhabitant's daily lives.Here are three diverse instances of the interaction with the 'B&O RR on

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