RAILWAY HAVOC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 28, 3 February 1936, Page 9

RAILWAY HAVOC.

STRATFORD ROUTE. OVER A DOZEN SLIPS. LINE BLOCKED FOR A WEEK. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") NEW PLYMOUTH, this day. Passengers travelling on the AucklandNew Plymouth express train last night were sent by the Main Trunk route. The Karioi Bridge, about six miles south of Ohakune, is damaged, and passengers will be transhipped round it. The Stratford Main Ti'unk railway lino was completely blocked yesterday by more than a dozen slips varying in size from 20 yards of spoil to as much as 300 yards, and it will not be open for through traffic for about a week. A raging storm swept the eastern districts of Stratford and Oliura yesterday and played havoc with spoil on the steep faces of cuttings and hillsides along the line, chiefly between Tangarakau and Man era para. 10 miles south of Oliura, sending hundreds of yards of spoil—some of it a mass of live and dead timber —crashing on to the permanent way, definitely to seal it. The line is clear to Tangarakau, and it is probable that trains will be run to-day between there and Stratford. The largest slip occurred at the Heao end of No. 9 tunnel. Hundreds of cubic yards of spoil, choked with timber, filled tiie cutting to a depth of 20 feet over an area estimated to be one chain wide and two chains long. Water in Tunnel. Another big slip estimated to be 500 cubic yards completely blocked the line just north of Tangarakau. Three feet of water was still running through the tunnel last night, and the stream is strewn with timber throughout the tunnel. At a point roughly 54 miles from Stratford, about 500 yards of earth will have to be moved to let trains through, and a quarter of a mile further north 2.50 yards have slipped on to the line. From there on towards Oliura slips have occurred every few miles as far as Manga para in quantities estimated at 50 yards, 200 yards, 50 yards, 200 yards and 20 yards, in that order, from Heao to Manga para, about 70 miles from Stratford, where 20 yards landed on the line. A works train left Stratford at four o'clock this morning for Whangamoniona to,'begin the work of clearing the line from the western end. Opunake Isolated. Opunake will be isolated by rail for about a fortnight as the result of destruction by flood waters of two piers of the small bridge near the' town. It is understood that trains will run as usual each day this week as far as Kapuni or Pihama. A train left Hawera for Stratford at 7.30 a.m. yesterday to conncct with the New Plymouth-Taumarunui excursion train, but both trains, on reaching Stratford, were turned back to their starting points on receipt of word concerning the slips at Tangarakau. Although work trains were due to leave Taumarunui and New Plymouth this morning for Tangarakau, it is believed the trains will be unable to go through before the end of this week.