Passenger by Buffer.

Manawatu Herald, 26 June 1902, Page 2

Passenger by Buffer.

John Neil, a street porter, belonging to Liverpool, had a marvellous experience a few days ago. Stramded in Edinburgh without a penny in his pocket, his thoughts turned to Lancashire, and he determined to reach Manchester, where he thought he could obtain work; The method he at last decided upon

was dangerous to a degree. Taking advantage of the darkness and the rush Sind bustle which always attend the departure of a mail train he crept onto the buffers of the second van of the midnight mail from ’ Edinburgh to London just as the train was about to stearti out of Waverley Station, intending to drop off at York and continue the journey on another train to Manchester in a similar manner. As the train rushed through the night at sixty miles an hour, Neil hung to the van rail for dear life. Soaked to the skin by the rain, frozen nearly rigid by the cold, and constantly in risk Of losing his precarious foothold as the train swept round the ctirvis, his was indeed a terrible experience. At Berwick by crouching down on the buffer ha managed to escape the observation of the railway officials, but as the train steamed into Newcastle, after having travelled 125 miles the adventurous passenger was seen standing upright on the buffer, clutching at ihe ii'bn rail. A hue and cry was at orifie faised, but Neil had dived under the train directly it stopped, ensconcing himself under the edge of the platform. There he remained hidden until the train again mOVed btit, When he was discovered and made to tell his story. He was at once handed over to the police, and was charged at the local Police Court with travelling on the line without having paid hia farm When arrested it was stated he had no money, was hatless and dishevelled and bore every appearance of his story being true, Although the magistrates decided that he had been sufficiently punished by the sufferings of , his terrible journey they remanded , him in order that his story might be inquired hitch