Controlled collision halts rogue train

Press, 21 November 1987, Page 12

Controlled collision halts rogue train

NZPA-AP Gardner, Massachusetts A runaway train that had to be stopped by slamming It into empty railroad cars got loose when its engineer left it idling while he went to a shop to buy a candy bar, the Massachusetts police said. The engineer, the sole occupant of the train, and a policeman who answered his frantic call for help, chased the train through three towns,

trying in vam to head it off at crossings before giving up. The train travelled about 50km at speeds up to 90km/h across rural western Massachusetts, going through at least nine crossings, before it was slowed by a hill. Railroad officials then caused the train to crash into a line of empty freight cars in the town of Deerfield. No-one was injured and minimal damage was done to the cars. The incident came on

the fifth day of a strike by railroad workers, who walked out over allegedly unsafe working conditions. The engineer’s train of six locomotives was returning from cleaning up a derailment when he stopped at Gardner, Massachusetts, said a police officer, Robert Babineau. “He went into the pharmacy to get a candy bar, and when he came out, he looked up and it was gone,” Mr Babineau said. ■