A SENSATIONAL CLIMB. RAILWAY EXPRESS ON FIRE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 368, 15 May 1889, Page 4

A SENSATIONAL CLIMB. RAILWAY EXPRESS ON FIRE.

The passengers in the express train from Melbourne arrived ab Albany one night last week in a state of great excitement. It appeared that when the train w&s a few miles from Wodonga the occupants of several compartments were alarmed by an extraordinary sound as of repeated knocking on the floor of the carriages. The blows eventually became so violent that the expected every moment to see the noWiv. v hurst up, and so much alarm was felt by th b panfcs o f O ne compartment that they emKTa. d fco comn f uni . cate with the guard of ia. frain bufc there being no electric apparatuc. 1^ +| compartment, they sought other meanto attract the attention of that official. They opened the door, and tried to attract the driver's attention, and could not make him hear. Sparks were then observed flying out from under the carriage, and then flames burst forth, and appeared <o extend the full length of the carriage. The passengers in the other carriages then noticed the fire, and within a few minutes all the carriage doors wete opened and the occupants screaming for help. The train was going at thd rate of about forty miles an hour and the shouting failed to reach either the guard or the driver,^ and at leng'h Captain James Johnson, of the W. F. Witznaann, an American vessel, now at Sydney, climbed out of the window of the carriage, and after encountering some difficulties in making his way to the engine he succeeded in informing the driver that the train was on fire. To hia surprise his report was replied to by saying that he would be locked up on arrival of the train at the next station. He was not arrested, however, and the driver, on the contrary, admitted that the Captain was right in making for the engine; The train was stopped and the fire extinguished.