The postcard reproduced herewith has been sent to us by a correspondent. It was brought during a visit to South Africa, and according to the shop where it was sold the scene was a small wayside station just outside Port Elizabeth. The railwayman in the picture had both legs badly crushed in an accident. Being unable to operate the platform lever frame himself, he caught a baboon on a nearby mountain and trained it to pull the levers for him under his supervision - an unusual example of remote supervisory control.
Railway World Vol 37 No 431 (March 1976)
My wife thinks the photo's fake (the baboon, not the crushed legs). You can see a bit of chain at the baboon's feet, suggesting... something.
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