HOME OVER A TUNNEL

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 117, 11 February 1936, Page 3

HOME OVER A TUNNEL

For 30 years Mr. and Mrs. Charles Russell have lived over a railway tunuel. Their home, Clayton House, stands at the Clayton end of the one and a quarter mile tunnel on the main Southern Railway line from Brighton. Three hundred trains a day pass 50ft. beneath their windows. Mrs. Russell tells the time by their passing. She says they are as good as an electric clock; that is, unless there is a breakdown or a fog.

Time-telling was easier when the steam trains were running a few years ago. The local, slow trains could be heard a long way off. The fast expresses were up to the tunnel and through it in a much shorter time. The difference in uoises was the meth od of telling which train was arriving. Now all fast and slow electric sound ;ilil;o. but they still act as the “clock.” Tlie steam trains and the smoke made it necessary for Mrs. Russell to change her curtains at least once a week throughout the entire house. With the coining ■ of the electric services only an occasional steam goods train rumbles beneath, and the necessity for a change of curtains only becomes urgent about once a fortnight. From.a distance, Clayton House looks like a fort. Two torrents, complete with battlements, house bedrooms. Between these two are three other small rooms, making an unusual home. Behind, on a small plot of land, chickens and ducks wander at will. They are sufficiently sensible to keep away from the drop that would mean death to them.