Two Hours in Train Tunnel

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 74, 18 June 1927, Page 10

Two Hours in Train Tunnel

Old Man's Featful Ordeal A drama with the elements of an Edgar Allan Poe story was enacted on the District Railway between Aldgate East and St. Mary,. Whitechapel, Station. Shortly after 4 a man of 73, named Robert Treadway, an inmate of the City of London infirmary, Bow Road, E., stepped by mistake from a westward bound train while it was stationary in the tunnel between the two stations. No notice, apparently, was taken of the incident, and for 2J hours the old man crouched against the wall of the tunnel, vainlj/ endeavouring to attract the attention c-f passing trains by signalling with his hands and throwing stones at the carriage windows. He was in agony of both body and mind. His thigh hacl been fractured by falling from the train: little more than a foot of space separated him from the footboards of the brightly-lit trains that rushed past him every few minutes. Not until soon after hall-past six did the driver of a Wimbledon train notice the crouching figure. He pulled up his train and conveyed the old man in .it to Aldgate East Station, whence he was taken on an ambulance to the London Hospital. It was the old man’s fortnightly day off from the infirmary. He had been visiting friends in Whitechapel, and was, it is believed, on his way back. He booked at St. Mary Station to Bow Road, but got on to the wrong platform and entered a west-bound train. During the period in which Treadway remained in the tunnel about 140 trains passed him either on the up or the down line. Many were packed with thousands of people on their way home from work, but none caught a glimpse of the brave old man. Despite the pain of his fractured thigh he was unable to lie down, as to have done so would probably have meant death in view of the narrow space separating the tunnel wall from the trains. Despite all the torture of mind and body that he endured, old Robert Treadway was quite cheerful when rescued, and remarked, smilingly, "Why, I have missed my tea.”