Eventful week in 1907

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32869, 18 March 1972, Page 11

Eventful week in 1907

(By 1

W. J. A. BRITTENDEN)

Four remarkable accidents occurred in Canterbury in the week ended March 30, 1907. Two involved trains, an old shell exploded, and a slip buried a tram line. \

Any of these accidents could have caused deaths or serious injuries, but in fact six men suffered minor injuries and two horses died.

On Tuesday, March 26, two lads found, on the Port Hills, a live 61b shell which exploded. On the same day, an engine ran over the end of No. 2 wharf at Lyttelton. On Thursday, March 28, two

passenger trains met in a head-on collision just north of the Rakaia rail and traffic bridge. On Friday, March 29, a tram coming into Sumner missed, by seconds, being buried under a massive slip in which hundred • ton rocks bounced about like peas.

A common factor in all these incidents was the steadiness and initiative shewn by those involved, S specially by those ible for meeting the ies and problems from these accidents.*' series of misires must have created tremendous interest at the time because The Press” on Friday, April 5, announced that so great was the demand for copies of the 92page "Weekly Press" of the previous Tuesday, which featured the railway accidents, that an extra edition would be available that day. The weekly newspaper printed excellent photographs of the three traffic incidents, those of the colli-

sion appearing on a folded sheet of art paper four times the size of a normal page. Two half-page photographs of the slip appeared the following week.

Two young men, Thomas Wales and John Grubb from well-known Lyttelton families, were rabbit shooting in the area between the ZigZag (below Evans Pass) and Godlsy Heads when they found a rusty 61b Nordenfeldt shell presumably fired from Ripa Island a few months before. They picked it up, examined it and Wales threw it down. The shell exploded and Wales suffered a nasty wound in the upper thigh. His companion tearing up his shirt in approved fashion bandaged his leg and got him three miles back to the Zig-Zag where others came to the rescue. A van was sent for and Wales was taken to Lyttelton where Dr Upham and Dr Guthrie treated him. Lyttelton mishap Then, as now, the south express ran through the Lyttelton station to Gladstone Pier and then an engine, hitched on to the tail of the train, pulled it backwards round to the Ferry Wharf. On the day in question the express, 20 minutes late and totalling 21 carriages and vans, the former packed with Easter and some Exhibition travellers, was shunted by No. 28, a 31-ton, Class R,

0-6-4, Fairlie’s Patent locomotive. I have not been able to find an official report on the cause of the spectacular accident which occurred but it was considered at the time that the strong northeasterly blowing and the momentum of the 200-250 tons behind the engine may have contributed to the neartragedy. Certainly the speed limit on the wharf, "dead slow,” was not being exceeded. It may have been a failure of the Westinghouse brake, introduced after the terrible accident at Rakaia had heavily underlined the grave inadequacies of N.Z.R. signalling and braking systems. It may have been incomplete familiarity of an otherwise competent driver with the Westinghouse; there is plenty of evidence to show that training of railway staff, at the period, was rather sketchy. Engine dropped At all events the train was not stopped in time and the engine dropped 6in down to ' the “traverser" bed with much grinding of metal and rending of timbers. It tore up another 10 feet of rail beyond the traverser and tossed the massive stop block into the water. As can be seen in the accompanying photograph, more than half the length of the engine Was left jutting over the end of the

The following day, with the crane to support the boiler and two engines tugging the one carriage and van left attached, R. 28 was pulled to safety and, with a flat-deck waggon under the boiler for a crutch went out to Addington for repairs. On Thursday the wheels and other gear were retrieved from the harbour bottom.

wharf, its precarious balance being aided by the fortuitous dropping off of the six driving wheels, the driving rods, cylinders and cow-catcher and the fact that the rear catcher was caught under the attached guard’s van. All this happened in a matter of seconds. The engine crew remained in the cab. Driver George Hill, described as the coolest man on the scene, blew off steam while Fireman William Butler emptied the fire-box. Further activity was hindered by the hundreds of passengers (the second express had also arrived) and Lyttelton residents pressing forward to look. Moreover the heavy crane sent for from Christchurch proved to be at Temuka so it was decided to tie the engine down with steel ropes and chains whipped round the wharf stringers until the, crane arrived next day. The Manaroa sailed just one hour late.

[The other two accidents will be discussed next week.]