A HUNDRED TO ONE CHANCE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1717, 23 November 1887, Page 3

A HUNDRED TO ONE CHANCE

The work of putting m new rails ie j generally done m the night, acd one rail oa;i be put m its plaoa and bolted down J m two or three minutes. In the old days, when nlght-gftiiga were rare, passengers I ran, unknown to themselves, some carious risks through the want of oare on the I part of platelayers. j A ganger, who had done duty on the j G ea'. Western Railway, once told an that ho with hla men were layin / some new rails on thut portion of 1 he lino bet vyonn Reading \ and Oxford. He hud, by his watch, j nearly an hour to work before the , " down expreßa " to Birmingham oatpe . along. I A rail waa oooordiogly taken up and a I new one about to be placed down, when, . to hla hoiror, the smoke of tho express appeared In the distance. His loatch xoas subsqreucntly discovered to hive stopped. With great presence of mind he ordered the me a instantly to place the rail m its posstion. and to leave it there, unbolted Tney did bo, and stood by with bated breath while the train dashed along Koiog over fifty mllea an hour, It passed, to their utmost astonishment, m safely ; and, although the rail rattled about, it did not tilt up, and an accident was avoided. As the ganger said, "It wbb a hundred chances to one against the engine taking the rail without disturb" . ing it."