EIGHTY MILES AN HOUR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 109, 11 May 1933, Page 8

EIGHTY MILES AN HOUR

“FLYING SCOTSMAN” DRIVER. “It’s a glorious adventure,” -.ays Mr. William Barnes. lie is over 60 years of age. He has been over 40 years on the railway, most of that time on the footplate of a locomotive, and for two years has driven the famous “Flying Scotsman,” and when ho retired on December 31 be looked back en his life is “just a gk.nous ad’C.” “The screech of the whistle as we pass beneath a tunnel or fly through a deserted station, with the lights twinkling, is music in rny ears.” Mr. Barnes said on the day of his retirement. All this summer and last I shared the lever of the non-stop express .from King’s Cross to Edinburgh, a distance of 393 miles, which is covered in hours. “.And bless your life the road between London and Edinburgh became as familiar to me as walking down the street to my home. Speed has always been my hobby. But it doesn’t matter bow fast you go it is nor fast, enough fur some disgruntled passengers. “It was on one of the trips from London to Leeds that we arrived 15 minutes late. Au irritable, old gentleman came up to me and remarked* ‘You |ought to he had up for loitering.’ and I vet wc. had been travelling at SO miles an hour in idarrs."