£5 FOR EACH PULL

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 December 1937, Page 4

£5 FOR EACH PULL

STOPPING RAILWAY TRAINS

LONDON, November 27

Every year on the British railways about 200 people stop trains by pulling the communication cord. In the majority of cases the cord is pulled as a result of genuine distress, such as sudden illness or accident. In the other cases the commonest offenders are people who have boarded the wrong train or those who have been carried past the station at which they think the train should stop. An L.M.S. official recalled the case of an elderly woman who was leaning out of a compartment window calling goodbye to her friends on the platform. As the train moved off she leaned out further and further, calling “Good-bye!” She was shouting her loudest and last good-bye when her false teeth dropped out, and she immediately pulled the communication cord in order to retrieve them. Instances have occurred where foreign passengers pulled the cord thinking they were ringing for the attendant.

It was not generally known what happened when the communication cord (or chain) was pulled, added the official. As soon as the cord was pulled it opened a valve causing a partial application of the brakes. This slowing up. of a train was shown upon a gauge in the driver’s cab, thus' 1 warning him to bring the train to a standOnce the cord had been pulled, a red disc told the guard what had happened, and the cord itself, which hung slack, showed the compartment. One of the most unusual of the genuine cases was then recalled by an official of the G.W.R., in which a bride and bridegroom were setting off on their honeymoon. The train had gone only a short distance when the bridegroom pulled the communication cord “because the bride was choking with confetti.” It appeared that such quantities of confetti had been showered upon the couple by their friends at the station (hat it was actually choking the bride.

Other cases include a Welshman ■ft ho pulled the cord three times to protest against the lighting of the compaitment; a man who stopped a train as a protest against a, young man who insisted on smoking in a non-smoking compartment; a man who pulled the cord for a £lO bet; he won his bet, paid the £5 fine, and cleared £5 profit; and a woman travelling in the Peak district who thought the train was going too fast.