RAILWAY SMASH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 7

RAILWAY SMASH.

.RUNAWAY STOCK TRAIN. T r - "~ PILED UP AT RAETIHI. CRASHED INTO GULLY. HUNDREDS OF SHEEP KILLED. One of the biggest railway, smashes in the King Country for some years occurred at 1.30 this morning on the Raetihi-Ohakune Junction branch line. A guard's van and fifteen wagons full of sheep, after careering down the line for seven and,a-half miles, piled up in a gully at the back of Raetihi township. Some hundreds of sheep were killed and maimed and rolling stock was smashed to pieces. Fortunately the runaway train had a clear track, and it crashed through the Raetihi station yard into the gully without doing any damage to the permanent way. It huried itself into a heavy stopblock, which it took with it. Special Train Divided. ■ Advice of the smash was received by the North Island divisional superintendent's office this morning. A special train consisting of 27 trucks of stock was being run from Raetihi to Ohakune. The engine was unable to negotiate the grade between Rochfort and the main line station. The fore part .was uncoupled and the engine took twelve wagons into Ohakune, leaving fifteen wagons and the guard's van a, mile outside the junction. The guard says that he applied the brakes on the stationary part of his train, but that thev failed to hold. The detached portion started off on its seven and a-half miles' journey to Raetihi, where it was piled up. There was no blockage of other rail traffic between Ohakune Junction and Raetihi.