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AN ENGINE'S SSCOSD JUHP. -
Though the huge locomotives that drag
express trains do not look as if they conla
oerform jumping featgj they have been :
known to leap extraordinary distances at
times.
The most apa^rng performance took place
a few yearswago at one ' of those swing
bridges which are used to cross the water3
of some navigable rivers. The moving
span had been swung open when the rum
ble of an approaching goods train ? was
heard. There was time neither to close the
uiiage nor warn tne anver. xnose on tne
bridge waited with bated breath for the
crash. The engine rushed to the edge of
the gap; then the couplings broke, and ii
continued on its way through the air. If
landed with its wheels on the rails on the
far side of the gap nearly forty feet away»
Both driver and fireman were nninjuxed.
The leading trucks were piled up in the
water, but the rear part of the train stopped
before reaching the gap, and the only other
living occupant, the guard, escaped tmnuTt
In another instance twenty feet of an em
bankment had been cut away to make room
for a huge drainage pipe. Tie rails and
sleepers were hanging in mid-air. By some
unaccountable error a signalman allowed an
express consisting of a locomotive and a '
train of heavy corridor carriages to pro
ceed on to this section. To the astonish
ment of the working gang the train passed
over safely, its speed carrying it across the
flimsy bridge just as a skater, if he is go
ing fast enough, may pass- over the thinnest
ice without breaking it. ' - -
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