HIT BY TRAINS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1938, Page 12

HIT BY TRAINS.

SLEEPER ON RAILS. WRECKING ATTEMPT? BUSY SUBURBAN LINE. SYDNEY, May 13. Police believe an attempt may have been made shortly after dusk to wreck a fast-travelling electric train, crowded with people returning from the city, on the Hornsby line between Hordern bridge and Waitara. Though passengers in every carriage felt the severe jolt when the train struck a heavy sleeper which was across the permanent way, the train was not derailed. Actually two trains, one travelling each way, struck the obstruction, but neither was damaged. '"It the sleeper was placed there deliberately, whoever was responsible nuist be a maniac," declared a railway official. "The line is one of the busiest in the metropolitan area at that time of the day, and a derailment there may have caused heavy loss of life. About 5.45 p.m. the driver of a train from Hornsby to Sydney reported to Porter Lambert at Wahroonga that his train had just struck a sleeper across the lines. Night-officer Leonard Sinfield phoned the police, and Detective-Constables White and McMahon were sent from Hornsby police station. Stack of Sleepers. In the interval, the driver of a crowded train also reported, on arrival at Hornsby from Sydney, that at 5.50 his train had hit a sleeper. Accompanied by the night officer, the police searched the line. They found that a number of sleepers were stacked, two deep, between the lines, for resleepering. Beside the permanent way was a sleeper which showed marks of having been struck by the two trains. Police believe it is possible that the sleeper reached the line accidentallv bv being shaken from the stack by" the vibration of passing trains, but are investigating the theory that the sleeper was placed, there by some malicious person, or by mischievous boys.