RAILWAY HEROES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8789, 17 April 1907, Page 4

RAILWAY HEROES.

The recent Arbroath railway disaster in Scotland lias tended to focus a remarkable amount of attention on the working of British railways, the hazardous nature of the work of many of ' those employed thereon, and the great risk of life and limb to which the travelling public are always more or less liable. Railway history teems with incidents where the possession of these qualities, allied with pluck of a high order, have averted dreadful calamities.

One~of the most notable instances on record is that of the guard, Henry Taylor, the hero of the “runaway train” episode, when the slow train to Glasgow ran over a ‘ ‘ sleeper. ’ ’ It was supposed that this was placed thereby train wreckers; but, anyhow, it failed to derail the train. The fearful jolt, however, threw the engine-driver and stoker right out of the ‘ ‘ cab, ’ ’ and both these unfortunate men were hurt so badly as to be incapable. The guard Taylor, in the rear carriage, presently became aware that the train was uncontrolled, and he actually climbed the whole way along

the footboards and boarded the engine.

By good luck he had had a training as an engineer in earlier life, and he stoked that engine and drove her himself, working like a demon. He dared not stop the train, for ho knew the express to Glasgow was on the road, and he could do nothing hut drive, her at her best speed, and handle her as well as he was able. At last, after a nerve-racking journey, he brought her into Leeds station, where the engine was soon re-staffed. Taylor had no occasion to regret his plucky feat. Herbert Griug’s achievement at the Newport signal-box, a few years ago, is still spoken of in the railway service as one of the most remarkable feats ever accomplished single-handed. Griug’s two fellow workers were both rendered helpless, and ho had to do the work of three strong men for six hours, with countless lives depending on him. One of his mates turned hopelessly ill in the signal-box, and the other, bf a trick of fate, [was mu over in the dark on his way to the -box, and killed.

Griug therefore was left alone with the sick man, and a task that seemed hopelessly impossible for one rnnii to successfully accomplish. He wired frantically in the [intervals of his anxious work; but his appeals for help[did not seem to be understood,[and no help came.

Stripped to the waist, the [perspiration streaming from every pore in his body, the lines under his chargo_kept him slaving at the lovers, and attending anxiously to the indicators; every moment passed in deadly anxiety lest a mistake in the jumble of work should cause a disaster.

Asked how he did it he simply didn’t know; hut not the slightest mistake was made, and all the traffic went through as usual. When the relievers entered the box in the morning Griug collapsed utterly, and latterly had a life or death struggle with a bad attack of brain fever. A case .of “-do or die” was that which confronted the driver of the Wangaratta mail train in Queens laud, one day during the summer of 1901. Three hundred square miles of forest round Wangaratta caught fire, and into the very heart of this swept the mail train. Only too well did the driver know that there was a fire ‘ ‘ on, ” but it was not until he rounded a certain curve that he discovered the flames had reached the line—worse, the woods were a blaze of fire on both sides of the track! He glanced back. Sheets of flame were boating down on the metals hi train had just passed. It was a case of‘‘Hobson’s choice;’ He had no alternative but to bang ahead and trust to luck. Wide open he flung the throttle, and at 70 miles an hour a tho train wont flying over rails almost rod hot. A perfect tornado of sparks and flames enveloped engine and carriages. Paint blistered and shrivelled ; windows cracked; many passengers suffered more or less; but the engine-driver was terribly burnt and scorched—that, however, to the hero of the footplate, was a secondary matter; what did matter was that the danger was passed in safety. The horrors of a railway disaster during a blinding snowstorm were only too cruelly experienced in the Arbroath affair, but, while there was not actual collision in the following cases, for sheer, downright, helpless horror, the circumstances were as pitiful as one could possibly

imagine. It was on a day in the very dead of winter, a train on the way to Odessa with 500 passengers stuck in the snowdrift at a little unimportant station. Wedged in like a vice, it was utterly imposible for the train to move a foot further.

For three days trains kept coming in, and one by one becoming buried in the enormous drift. By the fourth day 5000 poor.le were collected, and a famine raging. At last a telegram arrived saying that the line was clear, and soon two relief trains steamed in. Helter skelter 1 2000 people swarmed into them, and they started—but their troubles were far from ended! Aqout 18 hours later both trains were'hopelessly snowed upJ again, and packed in the drift in such a way that it was impossible to move either one way or the other. Tiie snow soon reached to the top of the carriages.

jjPon fails to describe [that pitiless night of horrors. Men, women, and children frozen to death, or died of hunger or suffocation. Day dawned, and with it the call for a volunteer to take a message to the nearest station, six miles away. Fiercer and more terrifying than ever the blizzard was raging, and the volunteer seemed to portend almost certain death, for so thick was “the snow that one con'd only see a few yards ahead. One man volunteered—a peasant. Five hours later ho staggere into the station, more dead than alive, his body covered with ice, and bereft of speech. But the written message ho carried explained matters, and help was wired for. It was amaguicent performance, but it cost the hero eight lingers and all his toes. His ears were also frozen ; and his nose; but think of the precious human lives lie saved! They were worth the sacrifice.