IDLE MAN DOES SOMETHING.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1934, Page 22 (Supplement)

IDLE MAN DOES SOMETHING.

The first steam engine to run on a railway has been in town. Not the original, for it is not known for certain where that is, but a model. At the London exhibition of the Model Railway Club a small copy of Trevithick’s engine was shown. It was made by an unemployed man, Mr. W. W. Mason, and he believes that it is as correct in detail as it is possible to make it. For five years before he began constructing it Mr. Mason was searching for authentic information concerning Trevithick’s engine, and he is said to have consulted 447 books. Then he worked for two years on the model. Trevithick's engine was tried at the Psn-y-darran Ironworks near- Merthyr Tydvil in February 1804, when it hauled a train 7 of five wagons and carried 70 ratn Mid ten tons of iron for nine and a half miles at five miles an hour. It proved inefficient in service, however, probably owing to the fact that its track was not strong enough, and after a time

it was converted into a stationary engine. It is said that its resting-place is probably a scrap dump in Wales. A model in South Kensington Museum shows us what it was like in its original form, and now there is Mr. Mason’s wonderful model.

TAKING THE FIRE WITH HIM.

The other day the Huddersfield Fire Brigade received a call. “Fire 1 Fire I” called a voice on the telephone.

“Where ?” asked the man at the firestation, whereupon the voice announced: “It’s on its way to the station.” What had happened was that a corporation driver was clearing refuse from the market-place when he noticed smoke pouring out of his cart. Someone seized a telephone, but instead of waiting for the brigade the driver jumped on the cart and drove the fire round to the back door of the station, where the fire was promptly put out.