. Every boy's book of railways and steamships . ed down an embankment; and yetthe 130 passengers escaped with nothing worse thana few bruises and a severe shaking. On a line in Mexico a driver drew up his trainwhen he saw a red lamp ahead, with the result thatpresently another train crashed into the rear andcaused a very great deal of damage. The red lampturned out to be strictly unofficial; a swarm ofcochineal insects had changed a plain light into oneof a vivid crimson. Exactly such an accident could not occur in ourcountry, if only because of the absence of cochinealinsects; but a spider st
. Every boy's book of railways and steamships . ed down an embankment; and yetthe 130 passengers escaped with nothing worse thana few bruises and a severe shaking. On a line in Mexico a driver drew up his trainwhen he saw a red lamp ahead, with the result thatpresently another train crashed into the rear andcaused a very great deal of damage. The red lampturned out to be strictly unofficial; a swarm ofcochineal insects had changed a plain light into oneof a vivid crimson. Exactly such an accident could not occur in ourcountry, if only because of the absence of cochinealinsects; but a spider stopped a train on the MidlandGreat Western line in Ireland on June 4, signalling between Ballyhaise Junction andBelturbet is worked by means of an electricalapparatus, and a spider getting into the instrumentbetween the contact points and the key levercaused a disconnection. No accident resulted, butthe train was delayed for nearly a couple of hours. The history of our railways teems withthousands of interesting incidents, of which the. ALL CHANGE! 187 difficulty is to make a selection. At Camden Towngoods station a niglit-watchman saw a dimly out-lined figure skulking in the shadows. The manwas instantly on the qui vive; and slowly andstealthily he dogged the intruder, until in a darkcorner he was able to pounce upon the assumedburglar. A moment later he was one of the mostamazed men in London, for he had clasped not aman but a brown bear, which had escaped fromconfinement. Upon the same line occurred an incident withall the possibilities of tragedy to follow. Froma goods waggon a crate fell on to the line, theconcussion setting free its inmate, a fine Bengaltiger. The animal speedily disappeared round abend in the line; and a little later a party ofsoldiers from some neighbouring barracks wassent off in pursuit. They found the tiger in theneighbourhood of a signal-box. The signalmanhappened to be outside the cabin when the animalappeared; and being quite certain that
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