A TRAIN DERAILED.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 289, 13 December 1897, Page 5

A TRAIN DERAILED.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

An incident which happened on the journey of the special Parliamentary excursion train from Wellington to Woodville on Saturday occasioned considerable alarm to passengers. When about two miles from Pahiatua the train, winch was travelling at the rate of nearly thirty miles an hour over a flat stretch of county, appeared to pass over some obstruction on tbe line. The sensation Avas, to say the least of it, most unpleasant, and a rush was immediately made for the carriage windows to see what had happened, those in the front carriages being under the impression that part of the train had left the rails. The guard's van was seen to he enveloped in a great cloud of dust, and some of the excited passengers immediately raise a cry that the train was on fire. It was soon realised, however, that the van was oh* the line and that the dust was caused by the wheels dragging. The van dragged for a mile before the train could be stopped, owing to the people frantically waving handkerchiefs, etc., out of windows and from platforms, which prevented the driver from seeing the guard's signal. When the train was pulled up a rush was made for the van, which showed a good deal of knocking about, windows being smashed and three of the axle-boxes and springs broken. Fortunately only the back wheels had been thrown off the line. The damaged van was left behind, and subsequently taken to a neighbouring station siding. The whole train was badly shaken, but the damage to the carriages was confined to the breaking of one window. Subsequent investigations by the railway officials went to show that the accident was caused by the spreading of one of the rails through expansion, the obstacle theory, to their mind, being untenable.

WELLINGTON, this day.

There will be no inquiry into the accident that occurred at the excursion on Saturday, the officials being satisfied that it was caused by the rails spreading owing to undue expansion.