TRAINS COLLIDE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 210, 21 June 1950, Page 7

TRAINS COLLIDE

SHEEP AND BULLOCKS KILLED

WELLINGTON SERVICE DELAYED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 20. More thau 40 sheep and two bullocks were either killed or had to be destroyed when an outward-bound Wellington-Taita passenger train rammed the rear wagons of a goods train being shunted on the same line to Petone, near Ngahauranga station early this morning. Five trucks were damaged, some beyond repair, but the engine and- the. first carriage of the passenger train received only slight damage. Smashed wagons and dead sheep littered the tracks, delaying the Wellington - Hutt Valley service for more than three hours.

The General Manager of Railways (Mr F. W. Aickin) said this morning that a preliminary inquiry had been held and, as a result, a departmental board of inquiry would be set up immediately.

Railway buses transported some 10,000 workers to and from Welling-, ton while the line was blocked. The driver of the passenger train (Mr M. Pene) and the fireman (Mr S. W Millhouse) escaped injury. There were only three- passengers on the Taita train, and they received little more than a jolt. The guard (Mr F. Robertson) was thrown from the guard’s van on to the back platform of the van by the impact, but was unhurt.