"Chinaman's chance"

From: GilonPaul@aol.com

I once read about an railroad expression describing the action or danger of lowering one Chinese worker on a rope (instead of the three a basket) to plant a dynamite stick in the vertical surface of a cliff.

The expression described the fact that quite a few such worker were not pulled up in time to avoid being blown up.

Do you know of this expression, if my memory is correct?

—Paul