A tramcar carrying a full load of passengers at 5 o’clock last night was derailed just outside the suburban end of the Hataitai tunnel. The accident was caused through the breaking of the axle of the small pair of bogey wheels at the rear of the car. Some of the passengers said they thought they heard something ‘go” while the car was travelling up Elizabeth Street, but the car proceeded up to the tunnel, being held up on the brow of the hill while two were coming through into town. The ear started again all right, but as soon as it was inside the tunnel a grating and grinding began. The driver at once eased the pace, realising something was wrong, but quickly concluded that if he stopped altogether the car might break down in the tunnel, so he kept it going slowly until the other end was reached. The front of the car took the points to cross over, but as soon as the rear wheels felt the pull over the axle went, and the wheels ploughed through the track for a yard or two. and stopped right across both tracks, holding up two or three cars which were following through the tunnel. Photograph shows the scene at the tunnel entrance just after the derailment occurred: the derailed car is in the foreground, flwing to the blockage to traffic, the tunnel-mouth for a time marked the terminus for homeward-bound passengers, and the starting point for those bound citywards. -L. Wallace, photo.

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 9, 5 October 1927, Page 11

A tramcar carrying a full load of passengers at 5 o’clock last night was derailed just outside the suburban end of the Hataitai tunnel. The accident was caused through the breaking of the axle of the small pair of bogey wheels at the rear of the car. Some of the passengers said they thought they heard something ‘go” while the car was travelling up Elizabeth Street, but the car proceeded up to the tunnel, being held up on the brow of the hill while two were coming through into town. The ear started again all right, but as soon as it was inside the tunnel a grating and grinding began. The driver at once eased the pace, realising something was wrong, but quickly concluded that if he stopped altogether the car might break down in the tunnel, so he kept it going slowly until the other end was reached. The front of the car took the points to cross over, but as soon as the rear wheels felt the pull over the axle went, and the wheels ploughed through the track for a yard or two. and stopped right across both tracks, holding up two or three cars which were following through the tunnel. Photograph shows the scene at the tunnel entrance just after the derailment occurred: the derailed car is in the foreground, flwing to the blockage to traffic, the tunnel-mouth for a time marked the terminus for homeward-bound passengers, and the starting point for those bound citywards. -L. Wallace, photo.