THROWN OFF RAILS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 91, 12 January 1926, Page 6

THROWN OFF RAILS

MISHAP TO PALMERSTONNAPIER GOODS TRAIN ENGINE TURNED RIGHT OVER LINE TEMPORARILY BLOCKED By Telegraph.—Resident Reporter. Palmerston North, January 11. A goods train which left Palmerston at 4 a.m. to-day for Hawke’s Bay failed to reach its destination for shortly after leaving Woodville if met with an accident at the Papatawa crossing. It appears that' the train was travelling at its usual speed approaching the crossing, when without any warning the engine lurched sideways and turned completely over. The driver (T. Fletcher) and fireman (H. Keating), both Palmerston men, had a miraculous escape and came off with nothing worse than a severe shaking and a few scratches.

It is stated that the traffic over the crossing had gradually embedded a quantity of small stones and metal in the rails, which was the cause of the accident. “It was purely an accident and there is no suggestion that the rails were wilfully interfered with,’’ said a railway official at Woodville when discussing the accident witli a Dominion representative. News of the accident reached Palmerston about 8 o’clock, and a relief train was immediately dispatched to the scene and arrived before the down Napier express. The passengers were transhipped across the wreckage in remarkably quick time and were brought on to Palmerston with but a very short dclav. It so happened that the traffic on the Hawke’s Bay line was exceptionally heavy to-day, and Seventh Day Adventists who had been encamped at Dannevirkc were passengers on the Napier express, but the railway officials effected their transfer from one train to another in a very creditable manner.

The derailed engine completely blocked traffic for some hours, but at 3.30 p.m. the line had been cleared sufficiently to allow trains to pass. At 4 p nt. a breakdown train arrived in Palmerston from the I’etonc workshops and proceeded to Papatawa, where work is now proceeding to place the engine on the lines again. No passengers were carried by the train, and it is reported that no serious damage was done, to the rolling stock.