GOODS TRAIN CRASH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 169, 19 July 1943, Page 4

GOODS TRAIN CRASH

COAIi AND WRECKED TRUCKS

(P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday. The most spectacular railway derailment in Canterbury for many vears occurred at Hornby, six miles south Sf Christchurch, early this morning, when a goods tram, carrying hundreds of tons of coal from the West Coast, piled up in the St Nineteen trucks of coal left the rails and at one point eight heavy iron wagons were piled high in a twisted wreck. Through traffic was diverted round the shunting siding and so no services were delayed. The wreckage had all been cleared away to-night. A fault developed in the undercarriage of a truck toward the front of the train as it was passing through the station and as the truck pitched on the line it tore gaps of concrete from the ledge of the station platform. When the undercarriage collapsed and ploughed into the permanent way the wrench parted the trucks, causing the instantaneous application of the Westinghouse brake system. Although the train was travelling only 20 miles an hour the weight of coal in the oncoming trucks caused them to pile up on top of those in front, which braked first.