The Railway Whistle.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 25 September 1914, Page 8

The Railway Whistle.

« The Leicester and Swannington Railway, now owned by the Midland Railway, has celebrated its seventieth anniversary. It was on this line that the steam whistle was first used. One of the old "Rockets." rumbling along the line ran into a cart on a level crossing. The cart was smashed to hits, the horse and driver had a narrow escape. The engine-driver had sounded his horn ; but the sound was not fierce enough to warn the carter, who, likely enough, after the fashion of country carters, was asleep on one of the shafts. George Stephenson, who lived in the neighbourhood, was appealed to, and he devised the steam whistle, which was at once adopted hy all the other lines.