STOPPING THE TRAIN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 19, 14 May 1914, Page 4

STOPPING THE TRAIN.

An earwig held up the London District Railway service, not long ago, by short-circuiting the electric signalling apparatus. In doing so (the “Westminster Gazette” remarks) it was unwittingly emulating the spider which on June 4th, 1908, dislocated the traffic on the Irish Great Northern Railway for nearly two hours. The electric staff instrument failed, and ultimately the cause was traced to a spider which had lodged itself between the lever and the contact points. Last year a train was derailed on the London and NorthWestern Railway owing to a hedgehog having been caught btween the point and side rails and preventing them closing properly. A Mississippi steamer was recently stopped by an invasion of willow-bugs, which made for the engine-room and clogged the engines; while a swarm of bees in December, 1912, took possession of a South African railway station, drove off the passengers and officials, and prevented any trains entering until they took their leave in the evening.