Year: 1874

the certain destruction of nearly eyery 1 passenger Ill 1t, unless something could | be done to arrest its headlong career. and

 tlat very speedily.

 When the keen edge of the shock had

 somewhat worn of, we began to think oi what chances and means there were of de ! liverance, and naturally, the first to sug- gest itself was ''the guard Yes, doubt | less the guard would see the danger as we l had seen 1t, and would endeavor to avert | the awful fate which now seemed hanging over us. There was comfort in the thought; but, alas! 1t was very short-lived, for a glance down the train sufficed to show us that the door of the van was one of those which were still standing open. The con- viction was therefore forced upon tls that l the guard had been left behind. He was 1 not on the engine or he would have stop ped the train; he was not on his way to 1t, or we should have been able to see him by l the light of the side lamps of the train; and he was not i'll his van, or his door would have been shut, and his brake wig l orously applied long ere thls, and of that there was not the slightest indication.

 Ours was truly an awful position. Pas sengers in q runaway train. on black and moonless night, and with neither en- gine-driver or guard to help us!

 The Middlesham and Dillmouth railway was about twenty-two miles long, and there were four intermediate station,- Ackridge, Durton, Felton and Ifcome. be- tween the two termfni. Two of these sta tions were passed, and we had therefore run about half the distance. We had been fifteen minutes in doing one half. and would most probably do the rest of the journey i'll less time than that 4 mis- erably short time to save so many lives: but something must be done. had al- ready made mp my mind that would do 1t, and was preparing by divesting myself of whatever would impede my motions, and prevent the free use of my limbs. when the first merchant looked wonder lngly at me, and asked me what was go- ing to do.

 ''I am going to try to'stop this train, to save my life and all our lives" I have to confess that until that moment I had been thinking only of my own life, and had scarcely given a thought to the numerous passengers on that heavily freighted train; but when l saw the merchant look shud- derlngly out in the darkness through which we were flying, and the hopeless look with which he fell back, almost sob ping, into his corner, I began to have an idea of the duty that was before me; and nerved myself to the utmost to do it.

 Hitherto, have Intentionally said very little about myself, but it is now necessa- " to state that was am enaa1Ioye of the immense railway concern, of which the Middlesham and Dillmouth was but a branch. l have used the sounding word enlptOye, but the simple fact was that I was q relief clerk; and that I was at that very time on my way to Ifcombe to take the place of the station-master. who was then seriously i'll, and unable to attend to hls duties. I was very often called to this particular kind of duty, and had in consequence acquired a very thorough and practical acquaintance with the out side work of a railway. I had had q great deal of knocking about from one place to another, and had been 1nvoIved Ill some uUCiIfcIrts of more or less serious character. I had luckily; escaped from them all without injury, un- less l dignify with the name of injury the slight bruise which got by being damned in the doorway of an overturning carriage by a gentleman who was just as anxious to be out of it as was.

 Nothing so much tends to give man presence of mind as being concerned in a few railroad accidents. The first time he is, as it were, knocked stupid; the second time he begins to reason; but the third time he decidedly objects, and the first chance he is ont of the train and doing his best to assist his fellow passengers. had exceeded this stage by, as | have said, two or three accidents, and had gained a considerable stock of presence of mind which I was prepared to use in the present emergency.

 would try to reach the engine by walk ing along the platforms of the carriages. My mind had been made up to that long ago, for through my unenyiable experien- ces of railway accidents, I had got into the unconscious habit of forming a course for myself for almost any eventuality which could turn up. had besides known of two cases of run away train. In both cases the steps of the carriages was used as means of communication with the en- zine. In the first case successfully. but in the second, the guard was smashed against signal post in swinging from one door handle to the next, and the train went tearing on until it came to the ter minus, where 1t tore up the bubbers, and was finally depoited Ill fragments about the platform and the frst-class refresh ment room. Fortunately it was an empty train and late at night so that no one was injured except the engine driver who broke his leg in jumping from the engine when he found he could not stop it; and the guard, who was killed The other case was that of train which seemed cer- tain to come in collision with another at a level crossing. The drivers put on their engine at full speed and jumped of. AL most by miracle there was no collision. and the train went on without any one to check it. As it happened, the guard had seen the danger, and had also seen the two men jump of the engine so that when the crossing was safely passed, he made the best of his way along the steps of the carriages to the engine, which he reached in safety, and was able to draw up before he reached the next station.

 This was the plan intended to put in- to practice, but on looking out of the right hand window, I was staggered to find some of the doors still flying open, and as it would be extremely difficult, if not impos- sible, to pass them at the rate we were going, it was much too hazardous to think of going that way; and the other side was equally out of the question, for with the remembrance before me of the iIl fated guard have mentioned, I could not have gone. There remained, therefore, noth- ing but the roof of the carriages. And now that l had thought of that way, could not help wondering that had not thought of it before. It seemed so much easier and safer to walk along the roofs, and leap from one carriage to another, than to scramble like a cat from door handle to door-handle, and from one plat form to the next. To decide, was the work of one moment-the next, I was in action. 1 threw the door open, and stepping from the floor of the carriage upon the window frame, used it as a kind of ladder, and mounted to the top. As did so, heard the merchant, from his corner, give me a parting ''God bless youw in voice weak and trembling, but with an accent so sin cere that I felt considerably encouraged and strengthened in my purpose. God knows I needed 1t; for, although it was a matter of comparative ease to reach the roof, yet, once there, on my first attempt to assume an upright position, I was thrown violently back, and had I not &hn orl of