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Name: FLANAGAN

First Date: 1904

Profession: Train guard

Book Reference: Cuckoo

General Information:

Cuckoo - The guard of our train was a red-haired Irishman named Flanagan, with a brogue you could cut with a knife and a ripe sense of humour.
Cuckoo - Train incident - He was acting as guard of a ballast train over the Nakuru-Kisumu section of the line, and one day the train was derailed three times and replaced on the track. Several times previously he had received a reprimand from the traffic manager for reporting accidents by telegram with too great a wealth of detail. Only on the previous day to these mishaps he had again been reprimanded severely for this, and it still rankled in his mind. When the ballast train eventually arrived at Lumbwa, he filed a terse report of the accidents to be telegraphed to Nairobi. The message read: "Traffic Manager, Nairobi. Off again, on again, off again, on again, off again, on again. Flanagan, Guard Ballast-train."
 

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