HIHITAHI SLIP

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 258, 31 October 1945, Page 3

HIHITAHI SLIP

MAIN TRUNK BURIED

EXPRESSES ARRIVE LATE

All available labour in the district is engaged in clearing the extensive landslide at Hihitahi, 11 miles north of Taihape, which has dislocated traffic on the Main Trunk railway since it occurred early yesterdav morning.

"There will definitely be no clearance today," said an official of the train running department at Auckland this afternoon in referring to the slip at Hihitahi. He added that passengers from Wellington and Auckland by the 3 o*clock trains would continue to be transferred at the slip. "The position is just 'as you were ' at the present time," he said.

Obviously glad that a journev of nearly 24 hours' duration had at last ended, passengers alighted from the Wellington express at the Auckland station shortly after 1 o'clock this afternoon. Despite the trials of travelling resulting from the slip, the passengers were quite cheerful and talked light-heartedly of their experiences.

The express left Wellington at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon and arrived at Taihape about 10 o'clock last night. There the passengers waited until 1.30 this morning, sleeping in their carriages. Thirty army trucks then .arrived and conveyed the travellers by road to Waiouru.

At the point where the slip came down, the railway and the main highway run parallel around the base of a high hill. Heavy rain was falling as debris and boulders crashed down the steep hillside, blocked the permanent way, carried away railway telephone lines and buried the highway.

Soldiers from the Waiouru Camp, railway surfacemen and Works Department employees combined to clear the highway, which was open to traffic by 10 a.m. Army drivers then transhipped the 1100-odd passengers involved, luggage and mails by road, rot without difficulty owing to further slips on the highway, and the three expresses held 1 up—two from Auckland and one from Wellington—resumed their journeys after waits of up to 12 hours. 28-Hour Journey The Limited express from Wellington arrived at 11 o'clock last night. The 300 weary passengers who alighted had left Wellington at 7.15 p.m. on Monday, nearly 28 hours previously. Under the circumstances most of them were remarkably cheerful and all agreed that the long wait had been made more endurable by the railway officials, who had rallied round in splendid style. The skilful wo-k of Army drivers was also praised.

Many of tne women passengers were carrying babies or had small children with them. Male passengers and railwaymen had helped to obtain milk and heat babies' feeding bottles, but for the first part of the wait insufficient milk had been available and a search of the countryside had only elicited the report that "there wasn't a cow in sight." The heating system of the train continued to operate during the long wait and conditions were as comfortable as could have been expected. A bucket of tea was made from supplies from a nearby railwayman's cottage and further refreshments were p-ovided at Taihape and later at stations on the way north. .''•,•', , The express which left Auckland at three o'clock on Monday arrived at Wellington at 6.56 p.m. yesterday instead of the scheduled time of arrival 7 a.m. The Limited express from Auckland took 28 hours, arriving at Wellington at 11.4 p.m. The Stratford-Okahukura line was also closed by slips, but was open for traffic again last night ; although numerous speed restrictions had to be observed. The most serious slip on this line was near,the mouth of a tunnel between Tahora and Tanga rakau, 45 miles from Taumarunui, .where the line was blocked for sixhours.