RANDOM READINGS.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 1 October 1913, Page 3

RANDOM READINGS.

A TRAIN SEVEN YEARS LATE I

\:^;^,^tlie"aatho^t^^;^£::'''.'.'ail..;''Alaericaii'' correspondent, the "Railway Magazine" records the story of a train which reached its destination^ more th"an| sey-; en years' behind time on^ a part of the ':Gu'lf;..and;;inW&tete: ; Raiiwa^,"-' : £oV';-Mll' eluded in. the Atchison Topleka, and Santa Fe system. The train started from Beaumont, Texas, bound for Port Bolivar, at 11.30 a.m. on Septem(ber Bth, 1900. The distance is sev-enty-one-miles, and the train was due in Port Bolivar at 1.55 p.m.; It main-, tainedits schedule for the first thirtythree miles to High Island. There it was surrounded by waters from ; the Gulf df Mexico, which had crept more than thirty-eight miles inland*, and flooded the railway. ..

When the waters subsided the train was high and dry on the prairie, the only rails left being those on which it stood. For, miles up,and down the line not a vestige of track remained. After hours of terror the passengers made their escape through.the mud. The

engine and four cars were abandoned, and remained a landmark.

Eventually the affairs of the Gulf and Inter-state revived. The road was rebuilt, and at last the rails from either end were connected with those under the long- overdue train. At first it was proposed, to tow the weatherbeaten equipment to its original destination. The machinists looked over the rusty locomotive, and pronounced her fit to complete her journey. They fired her up, and amid the cheers of everyone she moved off, creaking and "rheumatic" in her joints, but still serviceable. Tse news was telegraphed to. Port Bolivar, and when the train, more than seven years late, arrived, half a dozen of the original passengers assembled to greet it, and the fact that it had actually reached its destination was telegraphed all over the country.