DERAILED IN DARKNESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 154, 2 July 1927, Page 7

DERAILED IN DARKNESS.

TRAIN IN MANAWATU GORGE. ENGINE RUNS INT6 SUP. THREE VEHICLES LEAVE RAILS. LINE CLEARED THIS MORNING. <By Telegraph.—Press Association.) PALMERSTON NORTH, this day. The slow train from Napier to Palmer - ston North ran into a slip on the railway lino in the Manawatu Gorge last night. The engine tender and the two front wagons were derailed. The slip was removed early this morning, and, after new rails had been laid, the derailed wagons were jacked into position, and the train left for Palmerston North at 9 a.m. A special train to Woodville went through the gorge at ten o'clock to-day and the expresses are running as usual. Rails Spread by Boulder. The accident was caused not so much by the slip, which was very small, but by the spreading of the rails when a huge boulder struck them. The mishap occurred at the same spot as last year's trouble, when a big slip, thirty yards from the mouth of the tunnel, blocked the line for several weeks. Driver Had No Warning. At the time of the accident last night a misty rain was falling, and the night was very dark. The first the engine crew knew of the slip was when the train struck a» boulder. The engine driver, taking every precaution,- had ■ good hold of the engine coming out of the tunnel. Following the impact the front of the train swayed to one side, and the engine tender and two wagons seemed to stand up in the air, and then left the rails altogether. Neither the engine driver nor the firemen was injured. While the train was held up by the derailment there seemed to be danger of another slip, but fortunately this did not happen. The passengers had difficulty in scrambling over the slip with their luggage when shifting to the relief train. With the road also blocked, the only direct communication with Hawke's Bay I and the Wairarapa now is by track over the ranges to Pahiatua.