During the heavy rains and floods in the cantons of Geneva and
Vaud at the end of January (1910), a Swiss railway gatekeeper at
level crossing named Allaman, hearing an unusual hissing sound,
walked along the lines, having a presentiment that there was
something wrong. He found that a stream flowing from the Jura
mountains into Lake Geneva had become a torrent, and overflowing
its banks had swept away about thirty yards of the permanent
way, leaving the rails suspended in the air.
As the Geneva-Lausanne express traveling at sixty miles an hour
was due in a few minutes and would be precipitated into the
torrent with its sixty passengers, Allaman ran to his little
house for a red flag and stopt the express fifty yards from
the suspended rails, and then returned home pleased with the
fact that he had prevented a terrible accident. Some days ago
the news of the affair arrived at the Bern headquarters of the
Federal Railway Company, and the Swiss managers thought that
such an act on the part of a gatekeeper should be rewarded.
Allaman received his reward this morning for saving the express
and its sixty travelers from destruction. The reward was 8s.,
which works out at 1½d. a life.
If the accident had occurred the Federal Railway Company
would have been obliged to pay between £8,000 and £10,000
damages.--Pittsburg _Sun_.
(2777)