when, in the dim dawn of a February morning, the engine suddenly
toppled-over the embankment abutting on the structure. The floods had
washed away the earthworks, though the beams of the bridge itself held
fast, and driver and fireman were killed. Word was sent to Oswestry and
Aberystwyth, and in the first passenger train from the latter place Capt.
Pryce, one of the directors, and Mr. Elias, the traffic manager, were
travelling to the scene of the disaster, when it was discovered that
another bridge, near Pontdolgoch, was giving way under pressure of the
torrent, and the train, crowded with passengers, was only held up just in
time to avert what could not have failed to prove a catastrophe far more
tragic in extent.

Wild rumours quickly spread concerning the cause and nature of the actual
mishap, it being freely stated by sensation-mongers that the Severn
bridge had collapsed; but Mr. David Davies, who had been its builder and
was now a director of the Company, was able to show that, despite the
exceptional strain on the construction, the bridge had resisted the force
of the flood and was as firm as ever. Wooden bridges, however, have now
had their day, and in recent years have, in all important cases, under
the enterprising supervision of Mr. G. C. McDonald, the Company's
engineer and locomotive superintendent, been replaced with iron girders,
to the undisguised regret of some old-fashioned believers in the efficacy
of British oak!

This section of the line, indeed, flanked not only by the rivers liable
to flood, but curving its way up steep gradients, over high embankments
and through deep cuttings, is necessarily more subject to mishaps than a
level road, and it is hardly astonishing that it has been the scene of
more than one awkward circumstance. Among them is the story, still told
more or less _sotto voce_, of how, close to this spot, the driver of an
express goods train, long ago, might have killed the then Chairman of the
Company! The night was wet, and the driver, accustomed to a straight run
down the bank to Moat Lane, was astonished to find the signals against
him at Carno. He applied the brakes, but it was no easy matter suddenly
to curb the speed of a heavy train, and he floundered on, right into a
"special" toiling up the hill bearing Earl Vane home to Machynlleth.
{118} Happily for everyone concerned, no great damage was done; Board of
Trade officials were less inquisitive in those days, and it