MAIN TRUNK SMASH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 126, 28 May 1914, Page 5

MAIN TRUNK SMASH.

CAUSE OF THE DISASTER. A REMARKABLE STORY. I NEITHER SIGNALMAN NOR { DRIVER TO BLAME. A REPETITION OF THE MOSS. VALE TBOT/BLE. Now foal the tin?: shook of yesterday's collision on the Main Trunk ex- : | prnns is over. thcn> it- a natural desire j j to know what the official explanation ! of the cause of the collision will be. All ! I that could be gleaned from the somewhat ' j contused first impressions of the occur- I I r«_e was that the signals were wrong, i Wliangamarino. the s.vne of the acci- ; dent. := only a 'lag .-tation. in charge of | la tablet porter. Mr. William Donaldson. | 1 H : _ story, as published in w-sterday's j j - ..r »._ da:, aft. m . nl ig ; his _-ign_!t-. !.,. «.-.ii_ iv side-track tt. mixed ! goods and i-aiile train which hail just I arrived from Auckland. He was . itting j on the switch, in order lo keep the ; points dowii, so rhat the mixed train might run from th-e main line on to the loop line. Then with a roar the express rushed into the very middle of the mixed 'rain, and ploughed its way through it. Whv.u Donaldson, after a : ■period of uniMnwiousDff-, awoke to his . surroundings, he war, iiu^-sing a broken arm. and was half buried in a pile of wreckage. Both the tablet porter and ! :hi» driver or the express. Mr. J. H. Intone, re-fused to make any -lavement ! concerning ihc signa's when a "Stir" I representative arrived on the scene, and it a: firs: appeared as though one or the other ivoul 1 have to shoulder the j blame, However, it happened that '.here j were others on the scene of '.he accident | whose very finsr thoughts, turned to the question of : i\c accident had happened, atnd it was from one of lhe*? that the pressman obtained a highly interesting story. SIGNAL LEVER PROPERLY SET. "After the firs. sho. k of the accident." be said, "my thought ran to the immediate .a use of 'a. cd Us ion. T could sec that there was an army of willing helpers a: work on the wrecked ears, and realizrd thai '.here was a danger of hampering efforts by overcrowding. Tne-toa.] 1 hurried along to the station to sec bow the signals stood. Evidently the same though; had .-.ruck ether people, for six or s»ven of us. including Cue driver and fireman off the wrrckvd mix.'.d train, arrived on the platforib almost simultaneously. We wen. to : : -c station building md found I tic lever in the correct pcsitir.il to indicate Ihe red light .danger.. Til-. 1.-..:- was 1.-vkei. with what is known as the Wood paten: lock. and could only be released hy using the key in the tablet porter's possfssion. The tablet porter wa-, at | this iinie injured and unconscious. It | appeared obvious then, with the sigiiißl lev. .--t correctly, thai it was not '! Donaldson's fault that t.he cypres bad : j thundered through." j WRONG LIGHT SHOW ING. . j "Then." continued :he subject of the ■ interview, "we went out .>n the pint form ■ to see what light* were showing. It wavery dark and foggy, so that we could | nut. Kirn f" know the r\>, t prsitiou. ahle distance. The i-igna; was well over •2Dn yard? away. and v.-vi ."in imagine I ..ur intense surprise when we found '..hat | instead ..f a red light, a green light wa = I -bowing wh'c'n meant that ihe engineclear.' Apparently, therefore, neither ihe tablet porter n..r thr cngincd.rivcr was to blame, and the only explanation is that the weather alTc.ted the wires." HOW IT HAPPENED. A railway oflicial. with a knowledge of signalling, when seen on the subject, said that the story of neither the .signalman nor the cnginedriver being to blame was conceivably correct. The wires are at times affected by the weather, and have frequently to be adjusted to meet the change in climate, hi order that the green light should be shown, tension i? needed. What is known as "the spectacle" works on the semaphore arm. It consists of glass of two colours—green and Tod—-and is raised or lowered according to whichever colour the signalman wants to cover the signal la-nip. It is operated from the station, and in this case the wire.s ran a distance of over 200 yards bor.woen the station and the signal. Yesterday morning it was brtterly r?ld on the Waikato banks, aud it is suggested that the frosty -weather caused a contraction which was c.|.___.l to the tension usually necessary to show the green light. Hence the gree n light .showing when ihe table! porter had set the signal for "red." ; NOT UNCOMMON EXPERIENCE. In case* where il is difficult to see a ' signal from ihe slat ion or signal box, electric installations are sometimes provided. A: Ml. Kden railway station, for inPla.n-.-e, there is su.-h a devisv. whereby | lhe officials on the station platform are j aide to Ascertain how the semaphore I hat answered tire setting of the levo-rs I in the signal box. Also, in connection [with some of tiie bigger interlocking [signal services, tiie mecha.nism provides j for contraction, by including what- are .known as • 'eompwnsatoT*." At a Hag station like Whangamarino. however, there are no electric devices and no j ".•ompensi.tors."' It was suggested this ! morning by a railway offiv-ial thai if the ! wires, were enea«p<l in ritbber. or some'j tiling of the sort, there would not. he i the same ri__k of weather afTee.ting the . mrrhanwrn. It was stated, in fan. thai , lit. was not at all an uncommon thing in . ' ■winter -*eath<M- to have to work the | levers two or three times before the i ! semaphore arm would respond properly. THE TABLET SYSTEM. j A good d"ca! has also been said about - the working of the tablet system. The t objeat of the electric train tabl&t signaling svFPeni is to prevent more than one train being between any nro tablr-i stations at the same .time, and, when no i rain is in ihe eertKm between the taiblest staitio-DB. to admit of a tiain being etaxzeA ai. either end. Th» U acaampliehed by every train carrying a tabtet. ! OCT tablet only beings obtainable from . -'a* tablet iastnimrat* ">f the «s.ue mvt:on a" r --» same T't_=. No -rain table.: ca.n tv issued from s_axk«n "V" with i out the i*ou_en. of station "Z." an. ' otv-e a v. at-on ha* tamed a trail' 1 . taiW*~. no oi he tnhlei cs.n h* nhfatiuvt ■ I tor lhe »ai_e socttoti until • he one .saner _]hw- betrt deliverer. a 2 it* d«_t;natioi. I _fld jiace-t ja-i be • t^

inserted iv the instrument from which it was withdrawn. 'It is stipulated., however, thai .the i?i>_na_liiHy of tiainfi by the electric train :a-blc_. 4oes not in any way dispense with the use of the ti.ved, hard, or fog aignah?. NO DIFFERENCE AT WHANGAMARINO. in the taif ot tiie Whangamarino smash jt is not known wiiat the position was in regard to the tablet system of fcignaliing. Ihc tablet is automatically transferred to the engine by the patent I device which stands o n most station i platforms with its mechanical arm ont--trptchfti. In ibis way a train can run ; 'hrough at 15 or ,10 mile* an hour la& this one did i. and be out of the station • platform again before the driver had time to pick the tablet up. Xci'ther the tablet porter nor the engrnediiver would make any stateuieuv yesterday concerning the tablet signal, but in any rase it could have '• made no difference so far as the colli■sion was concerned, for the point at which the accident happened wa* not jSO yards out of 'the station platform, | and it wa* at about the point where the tablet signal oprrate.s that the driver ;and -fireman first sighted the mixed ! train and applied the brakes. They j would then be all eves for the collision i which wa« inevitable, and would nat-ivr-I ally have no thought *"or the tablet. NO OFFICIAL STATEMENT. ! When the chief eierk at the Auckland j railway .-t.uion was seen by a "Star" j representative thin morniug. t!i« above ] statement of what was supposed to have been the cause of the accident was placed before him. His reply was that | the Department was still in the midst jof its own inquiries, and he could at ] present make no statement, upon the I subject at all. To do so at the present j time, be added, would be impossible, as ' a full oflicial inquiry into the accident j had yet to be made. i POLICE VISIT THE SCENE. j Yesterday Superintendent Kiely and ! DcLc.'tive-cH.'.geaiit liollis visited the I scene of the accident. There was, it is j linden-0...1. no special significance attaching to their v:-it. They will both j give ci iilence at the adjourned inquest.