TRAINS HELD UP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15548, 4 March 1914, Page 12

TRAINS HELD UP.

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SOME CURIOUS' CAtfSES. . r

Tub "human element" -has l leen-a great deal talked 'in'"connection With railway disasters; but the "insect element " is ian A equally; < important, [ faster;- to be reckoned, with on railway- lin<es abroad. i■ In South 'Africa, for example, the locusts are the- particular pents, ae they swoop down on to the line in myriads, artd, as the wheels of the engine crush them, the rails become so excessively slippery that it is'frequently impossible to negotiate an incline without the liberal use of sand.

Another kind of insect danger was illustrated in Kentucky two years ago, when, during the height of the holiday season, a swarm of angry wasps invaded the signalman's cabin just as he was about to change the points to enable an express oxcursion train to pass. He wag sftihg to the point of collapse over face, arms, and neck; but the screech of the oncoming express brought bun to his senses in the nick of time, and, pluckily making for the levers, he was able to save that express from crash- • ing into a goods train on the same line. It was another holiday express train which was a short time ago brought to a standstill at Minden, Germany, The line not being signalled clear. The signalman found it impossible to get a certain lever to work, and the train had to wait. An examination subsequently showed tliat a large rat had become entangled in the mechanism, and might have occasioned a disaster.

Insects have even interfered with the railway system, of England, for, on one occasion, the fine electric turret clock at Wolferton Station, on the Great Eastern Railway, was stopped through swarms of flies getting between the dial and the glass covering, thus preventing the hands from working. Again, Burgess Hill railway station, Sussex, was, not very long ago, dominated for many hours by a swarm of angry bees, whose hive had been inadvertently smashed on the platform, and who .stung the porters badly and .caused a mild panic among the. jassengerg, .. -