|
Late one evening Mrs Littlely was on the train to
Karragullen. She was the only passenger in the single passenger carriage that
night. Busily knitting she was unaware to the things that were about to happen.
When the locomotive pulled into Pickering Brook
Station it had to turn around so it was on the correct end of the train when
heading back to Midland. Although the train was terminating at Karragullen, it
had to do the turn-around at Pickering Brook which had a triangle rail
formation especially for that purpose. It would then push the only passenger
carriage to Karragullen where it would connect to the goods carriages and would
then pull the completed train back to Midland, as it was now facing the correct
way.
All sounds good but it did not go quite as
planned.
Arriving at the Pickering Brook triangle the
Single Passenger Carriage was uncoupled and left whilst the Locomotive continue
to transverse the triangle so it would be facing the correct way when it
eventually arrived at Karragullen. However whilst doing this exercise the
driver noticed the lights of the passenger coach moving downhill through the
forest on the rail line towards Karragullen. Obviously the brakes had not done
their job as the coach started to gather speed on the downhill run. Mrs.
Littlely continuing with her knitting was completely unaware of the danger she
was in.
Not to be deterred, the driver quickly finished
the turnaround and headed off after the passenger coach. Traveling quite fast
it finally caught up with it and giving it a gentle nudge coupled on and
continued steaming on to Karragullen as though nothing had happened.
Alighting from the passenger carriage, Mrs.
Littlely commented "it was a very quick trip tonight, Driver", still
completely unaware of the scenario that had just unfolded. The Driver agreed
with her comment but did not elaborate.
References: Article: Gordon Freegard
Copyright : Gordon Freegard 2008-2020
|
