Free Clive Cussler by The Adventures of Vin Fiz

heated the water in the boiler into steam that powered the engine. The bandits must have shoveled in half a ton of coal before escaping, because the fire was very intense.
    The second thing that overwhelmed them was the maze of valves, gauges and levers. There was a steam pressure gauge, a temperature gauge, a water gauge and at least ten valves, all painted red. And there were two long levers, one labeled REVERSE, which rose from the floor of the cab, and the other marked THROTTLE and extending from the top of the firebox.
    "Oh no!" shouted Lacey over the clanging and hissing of the mighty engine. "Here comes the station!"
    They only had time for a quick glance as the Sunrise Express roared past the station like a tornado, nearly blowing the conductor, the stationmaster and the passengers from the other train off the platform. And then the station and all the people were left behind with a big whoosh, and the Sunrise Express continued on its mad, crazy journey to certain destruction at Eternity Curve.
    Casey stood his ground and studied the entanglement of valves and pipes that looked like the thick underbrush of a jungle. "Let's begin by turning the valves off," he said, trying to look as if he knew what he was doing.
    "Which ones?" asked Lacey.
    "Take your pick. I'll take the levers."
    The valve handles were hot to the touch, but Lacey found a glove left behind by the abducted fireman and began spinning the handles as fast as she could. She knew that to close a valve, you had to turn it to the right. She remembered the words "lefty loosely, rightly tightly." At first nothing happened, but as she closed the fourth valve, a round one bigger than the others, she got lucky. Lacey had cut off the steam to the great pistons that plunged back and forth inside the cylinders that moved the drive wheels. "I think she's slowing," she burst happily.
    "You did it!" Casey shouted. "She's definitely slowing."
    Indeed, the train had slowed but not nearly enough. Lacey had stopped the power that drove the train, but its momentum kept it barreling over the tracks like a rocket ship.
    Eternity Curve had come into sight, and so did the Moonlight Limited, which was just backing through the sharp turn, doing its best to switch tracks before the Sunrise Express crashed into it.
    While Lacey was frantically twisting the valves, Casey had spent the time studying the labels on the various levers. He pulled the lever that was labeled BRAKES from the "off" to the "on" position.
    "Hooray!" he shouted as the air brakes took hold on all the passenger cars and their steel wheels began skidding over the tracks.
    It still wasn't enough to stop the runaway train. Though its speed was down to ninety miles an hour, that meant it was traveling at 132 feet a second—and it was only two hundred yards away from charging around Eternity Curve at a speed fast enough to jump the tracks. Casey then pulled the lever marked REVERSE to its full stop. The big drive wheels instantly reversed their whirl forward and began spinning in the opposite direction. But with steel wheels against steel rails, there was almost no grip between them, and the wheels merely skidded over the rails.
    Eternity Curve was barely fifty yards away, and the other train only another fifty yards farther.
    But Casey wasn't finished.
    The throttle was already full open, with the engine running in reverse. As fast as his hands could move, he opened the two valves that were tagged SAND VALVES. Sand flowed onto the tracks beneath the drive wheels, giving them traction. Now able to grip the rails, the great steel wheels gained a firm hold and assisted the brakes in stopping the train.
    The train was entering Eternity Curve down from ninety miles an hour to fifty, still a dangerous speed for such a sharp turn. Meanwhile, the Moonlight Limited was backing at forty miles an hour, and the Sunrise Express was gaining on it.
    Whipping into the sharp curve, the speeding train and all its cars leaned sideways,