THE DANGERS OF TRAVELLING.
About a forthight ago the driver of the
day mail from Southampton to London found himself suddenly obliged to bring ! his train to a stand-slill owing to the signal being against him at the Sheerwater bos, close to Working. Tho passengers sat waiting patiently : the time went on, and no sign came. Still tho semaphore pointed to "danger," so at last the fireman of the waiting train got off his engine, and went to the box to see if the signal-man had fallen asleep at his post. Such an occurrence would be rare, yet sometimes even the best men employed by the railway companies may commit so dangerous a dereliction of duty. Samuel Gunner Was the signalman who had charge at Sheerwater, and he had been in the company's service for thirty years. He was not likely to forget the responsibility testing on him as a signalman, and to fall asleep over his work. When the fireman got to the box, the cause of the delay was quickly and terribly explained. There lay the unfortunate signalman quite dead. He had been stricken down while doing his ordinary everyday work, and there was nothing to show that death had not proceeded from natural causes. The picture thus presented to the public is a startling one in many ways, apart from the, sadness attaching to such a fate. Samuel Gunner dead in his box from apoplexy or heart disease, with ear deafened to the whistle of the fast approaching mail, with the telegraph needles working impatiently to apprise him of other trains also by that time due ; yet hi 3 eyes fixed in death, and his hand helpless. Well was it not only for those particular passengers, bub for others perhaps, in other trains, that when" Gunner was seized by his mortal illness his signals happened to he placed in danger. If by any chance they had denoted that trains might have passed freely up and down the line, there is no saying what terrible disaster might not have occurred owing to this sad and sudden case of death in a signal-box. I
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Bibliographic details
Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3171, 27 August 1881, Page 3
Word Count
355THE DANGERS OF TRAVELLING. Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3171, 27 August 1881, Page 3
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