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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 3 (July 1, 1932)

“Hold-ups.”

“Hold-ups.”

One of the most exciting movies showing in the picture theatres at present is all about a Chinese express. Bandits there are a-plenty and when this train is suddenly pulled up at dead of night the passengers think it is another hold-up and out of the carriage windows they pop their sleepy heads to investigate.

But it is not a bandit hold-up after all. It is only a cow and her little calf standing on the railway lines. And the time they take to move them! The Chinese will not let their animals be frightened or disturbed because, over there, they are so very valuable. When the express, with its hiss-hissing of escaping steam, does thunder on, fowls which have been roosting on the rails are sent flying in all directions.

This reminds us of what people told George Stephenson, the man who invented the railway engine. They said that the smoke from his engine would poison all the farm animals, cows, hens and pigs and that birds would drop dead, killed by the fumes. Men of importance also said that the engines would burst and blow the trains to pieces and that they would set fire to the countryside as they passed.

When George was building his famous “Rocket” he had all kinds of ridicule hurled at him. However, his beloved “Rocket” won the £500 prize which was offered to the man who made the best engine. It drew a load of thirteen tons at as high a speed as twenty-nine miles an hour. A remarkable achievement at that time.