TEN MILES IN SIX MINUTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3091, 7 May 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

TEN MILES IN SIX MINUTES.

Ax American correspondent writes: — "Locomotive running wild; clear the main track ! " was the message scut along 1 the Pennsylvania* and Pouglikeepsie Railway the other day. The truant locomotive had been standing- on the main line at Blairstown when a goods train, coming up behind, ran in ha it. Tho throttle was thrown wide open by the shock, and before anyone could leap on board the engine it was tearing down tho track at the rate of a mile a minute. The small lots of people at the various stations heard a crushing roar and saw a flash of burnished brass as tho engine flew by. A passenger train from New York, on the Susquehanna and Western road was almost clue at Portland, and everyone expected a collision on tho tracks, which are used jointly by the two roads ; but the runaway reached the Poughkeopsie Road crossing, and was switched on to that road two minutes before the Susquehanna train came along. The .switch was turned half a minute before the engine reached it, otherwise nothing would have saved tho passenger train. The truant engine dashel along (ho long bridge at Portland at the rate of 75 mile* an hour. Steam began failing on tho heavy gradient of the bridge, tho engine slackened its speed, and a man leaped on board from another engine, climbed over the coal to the throttle, and stopped tho runaway. Tho run from Blairstown to Portland (ten miles) had been made in six minutes.