The Province from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 48

1 Whatever the men of the mechanical department of Coras Iompair Eire-arm expected when the management In Dublin chose an Englishman to be their new boss, it was unlikely to be what they got. It seems odd in retrospect that the We've to got top i. if Wp JV meetin Irish state-owned railway system looked to England in the late 1940s to select somebody brilliant and erratic to mind its trains. The Hibernians were supposed to have the corner on those two qualities. The man ap like this pointed chief mechanical engineer was Oliver Vaughan Bulleid.

Bulleid's fascination with things novel DDSDDDQBBQDBODOnQnDDDI3SDDDDDQDDO NANCY S'EBU ITanna engine at a spot where many spectators stood. This number missed out on the full spectacle. They were facing the wrong way, running for their lives, when the two locomotives met at an estimated speed of 75 miles an hour. Any disappointment felt by watchers was not shared by the promoters. After paying all costs, they cleared $10,000.

Evel Knievel would probably understand the philosophy underlying this short-lived entertainment form. AND 52 INCHES THANKS TO: HILTON STAUFFER Reducing Salons i'l'iltli'lJHIiri THE Noncy Before size 14i Nancy Now Size 8 was matched by his curiosity. Once, when riding a steam engine, he told the engineer to make an emergency brake application. The train lacked continuous braking and, when the engine stopped, the line of four-wheeled cars behind compacted and then broke apart on the rebound, while merci- fully holding to the tracks. At the time, he was only an assistant to a chief mechanical engineer and his, superior was enraged when Bulleid calmly stated that he had been curious to observe first-hand what happens in an emergency stop.

Such exercises could be pursued without reproach on the CIE. First came a low-speed collision staged on a branch line. What followed was more ambitious a deliberate wrecking was organized near Mallow, on the main line from Dublin to Cork. Ostensibly the intention was to lest the ability of a coupler that Bulleid was interested in, as a way to stop coaches riding over the tops of each other in a crash. Bulleid's staff fixed up a shelter so that the 40-mile-an-hour collision between condemned coaches could be watched at close hand in some kind of safety.

The chief mechanical engineer would have none of this and stood in the 'open within a few yards of where he thought the vehicles would hit. He was correct as to the spot where the collision would occur and mercifully went unharmed. Bulleid's performances were not for public consumption, although the film Industry knows well the entertainment value of doing damaging tilings to locomotives and trains. The success of filmed sequences showing trains being blown up, derailed into gorges or otherwise disposed of was preceded by live per- formances before paying audiences. One such entertainment was held near Denver, in 1896.

The viewing charge was 50 cents. A special one-mile length of track was laid and, at opposite ends of it, were stationed two fired-up locomo- tives of the 4-4-0 type. Each engine was named for the occasion after a disreputable politician. Then as now there was no shortage of names to choose from. At a given signal, engineers aboard the engines tied down the whistle cords, threw the throttles open and jumped clear.

A crowd of 40,000 bad gathered to watch and it had been presumed that the equally matched locomotives would meet in the centre of the mile of track. But the locomotive named after-Bill McKinley was the sprltelier of the two and charged past the cleared halfway- mark to meet the Mark (niiktiaamtntti THE CRASH nshmoaialf Because we care, We want you to have Weight reduction Complete privacy Nutritional Guidance Personalized attention Posture improvement Passive reducing I means no appetite increase Written guarantee on recommended Complete Droaram fSPRI NG AND SUMMER SPECIAL? GIFT LETTER CERTIFICATE DAY AFTER Ttti offer rATABLE TO THE Godtw I zz- value of $20.00 I HILTON STAUFFER ENTniES THE BEARDl OF THIS CHEQUE TO $20.00 VALUE ON I ANY PERSONALIZED PROGRAM TWENTY $20 too BY HILTON STAUFFER SALONS pit cheque redeemable at any Hilton rJ Stauffer talon only I Good only until May 27th, 1973 LiLV Daily 9-9 Sat. 0.1 4 4 XllEf PROVINCE; 'Friaa Slay'lS; 19V3".