Asleep on Duty.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 227, 28 August 1883, Page 3

Asleep on Duty.

A strange incident which occurred on the Holyhead raiiway the other day has I just come to lighti It appears that the signalman at; Llandudno Junetionixe-i ceived a message from the signalmen at ConwiVr the >d6xt;station towards Holy* headj^thata light engine was coming. The iunotibn7sighalman, knowing that , the Irish -mail Has 'due, decided to;rnn the engine into a Biding, m order to permHrtheexpreßS,.*o?pass> : He accor£ngly pntcup »U the signalsjagains^the h&tev&ne, ,-bntt to? his amazement, the into' the junction at foU part W^4uger v «gna4s l; aud djsapT • - ■ ■■ ■- ■ •»■ ' ;

peart-d from view down the line towards Chester. The signalman, on reflection, concluded that the driver arid stoker must be asleep ; and he accordingly telegraphed to the Colwyn Bay Station !« Engine coming ; driver asleep. Put fo» signals on line." The man at Colwyn Bay was equally prompt, and unning out. of his box he had just tim^ to lay a number of log signals on the line, when the engine came thundering alone, and an explosion followed which awoke the sleeping men. The engine wtiß Btopp6oVahd run back into a siding when it was discovered that the fire had gone but, tha^j the water had disappeared fiom the boiler, and that the men had been asleep sometime. An enquiry has resulted m their immediate d'Schargf. They had been fifteen hours onjduty. i I =