Loco. salvage successful

Press, 29 May 1978, Page 6

Loco. salvage successful

PA Wellington Fifty-four tonnes of battered railway locomotive teetered on the brink of a bank above State highway I at the climax of the salvage north of Pukerua Bay, near Wellington, last evening. Railwaymen scattered in all directions as the weekend’s work momentarily seemed about to end in further disaster. But the Da diesel locomotive, in which two men died "When it was derailed on Thursday . evening, settled down and came to rest upright beside the frack. Two Railways steam cranes pulled the engine upright, after it had been slowly winched up the bank by bulldozers and left lying

on its side beside the track. The old steam cranes seemed to raise the diesel effortlessly, but as the locomotive came upright the underside suddenly scraped along the ground, and the whole engine moved and swung on the edge of the 30m drop for a few seconds. Hundreds of people watched the salvage work from the roadside below during the week-end, but they were cleared away, and traffic stopped, for critical Stages of the work. s It took Saturday and much of yesterday morning for the 50 railwaymen and contractors to drag the engine from its position part-way down the bank. The locomotive was damaged more severely than was at first thought, the motor having come off its mountings. The locomotive will need a big repair job.