ASLEEP AT HIS POST.

Dunstan Times, Issue 616, 6 February 1874, Page 3

ASLEEP AT HIS POST.

—0 (Pall Mall o'telle.) An engine driver, it seems, the o'her dav fell as'-eo on h's Bn 'ine, hut was hapl ily awakenel before any serious casualty hannam-d The in'mres'ing occurrence took place in this wise. At a point hej Tehay and Barnard Cas‘le, on the Stockton and I'a'lingtnn section.of the North Fasten Bai’-vav, ia-i s*e'pipeline callel the | •* Summit.” and f’-ftm this point to a small j station at Barnet the line is only single. 1 Hence it is ncce?*arv that some of the j trains going wst shou'd shunt at “ The I Summit ” into a siding to al’ow the pasI as ye of the train oomin r in the opposite direction; On the day in question, on a tro- dg train arriving at the spot mentioned th" fireman i-iipnc! down to set the nointg for the shun 1 in nr ler that the train might put into the siding. To hi* astonishment on reaching the place where the train •hon'd have put back, the train did n-> such thing, hut unaccountably continued its v'ur’>ev, an I at the commencement of the incline increased its spo°d. Fearing the co"S"n’ience* wi‘h an anxiety most nnusna’ in railway ■ fficids, the fireman, rendered bohl 1 y his fears, bravely sprang tmon the passing van and ran along the top of *he wngnons to see what had hap.penc'l to the driver. When he got to the foot plate the mystery was explained : there upon his engine, lay the driver, wrapped in a abunher, so sw-'et that it must have npneared a positive cruelty to re-a'l him from the lan 1 of dreams to that of stern reality and radwav accidents. The fireman at once promptly reversed the 1"V rani 'hua arres*e 1 the advance of the train, an 1 as in the meantime the signalman telegraphed the fact that the tra : n was continuin'' on the main line to Barnes, all np-trai s were prevented from Ica ,- ing that place, s '.that positively not a single. pc r s >u was hurried nr flurried into eternity, an 1 the driver awakening “ like a lion refresh 0 '!,” wa*. no doubt. liko that nnb’e ’ east, prepared far any amount of •laughter.