The Switchman's Tower (1911)
Bill is a tower man who sets and resets the switches at a junction of the main line. He has a wife and a little girl. One of the engineers on the road whose headquarters are in the same town, is something of a local sport. The young wife has occasion to compare the respective incomes of this engineer with her hard working husband to the latter's disadvantage, and the engineer invites her to go with him to the Engineer's Association Picnic. Her husband objects, but she goes anyway. After the train has stopped a little way out for water, she gets out of the train and starts to walk back. In the meantime the good husband has kept to his work and also watched over baby. But he did not notice that it had wandered out of the tower, down to the tracks. The mother finding that both baby and husband are missing, starts out to find them. The excursion train is now starting for home; the engineer, much put out, Bill switches a freight train on to a siding to leave the main line clear for the excursion train and almost at the same instant discovered that his child is on the main line track. He calls to her from the tower. The engineer on the excursion train discovers the child at the same time and almost at the same instant sees the switch set so that the child's life will be saved but that he and his trainload of passengers will be dashed into the freight on the siding. And then Bill realizes what he has done and covering his eyes with his hands, reverses the switch, knowing the train will pass over the spot where his child is but that the trainload of passengers will be saved. The train plunges down the track toward the child, who stands with her back to it unconscious of it; but the young mother suddenly appears at the edge of the track and snatching the child from in front of the engine, holds it in her arms a fraction of a second before the iron monster sweeps over the spot.
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GenresDrama
Short
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