RAILWAY SUPERSTITIONS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 3257, 25 September 1928, Page 3

RAILWAY SUPERSTITIONS

DREADS OF ENGINEDRIVERS

SOM*E QUAINT EXAMPLES.

Superstitions of raibraymen are discussed by a correspondent jin the Kailways Magazine. "The refusal of an. engine-driver to take out of an English railway shed a new locomotive bearing the number '13' serves to remind us of the hold that superstition has on many railway workers," he writes. "We can all appreciate the dislike of the average - engine-driver at taking out a locomotive which on its previous run has been concerned in a serious mishap. Much more difficult is it to understand why engines whose numbers contain the figure '9' should be shunned like the plague by many intelligent drivers.

"Another inexplicable superstition of the British locomotive man is that which concerns the turning of the-en-gine on the turntable. Some men insist upon turning the table to the right. Others are equally insistent upon turning their locomotive to the left. By ,both, any deviation from their accustomed practice is regarded with superstitious dread.

"Then there is the quaint belief that never, if you wish.to avoid mishap, should you step on to,the engine with the right foot first; nor, what is even more disastrous, climb but of the cab on the right side. Most singular of all is the horror which arises in the mind of many engine-drivers at the sight of a hare crossing the metals in front of the locomotive when he is setting out on a long journey. Such an occurrence the superstitious enginedriver in England regards with the gravest apprehension. New Zealand