FALL INTO RIVER

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 6, 2 October 1941, Page 8

FALL INTO RIVER

Engine Of Goods Train Lands In Stream

TRUCKS OVER BANK

Remarkable Escape Of Engine Crew Dominion Special Service. WANGANUI, October 1. Disaster overtook a goods train which left Wanganui at 11.10 p.m. last night when the engine, tender and a box wagon plunged 40 feet into the Wangaehu River and nine trucks crashed over a 20-foot embankment in a derailment at the Wangaehu Bridge shortly alter midnight. Both the driver, Mr. P. J. McLaughlan (Wanganui) and the fireman, Mr. L. J. Benefieid (Wanganui), had remarkable escapes. ' Suffering from scalp wounds atid abrasions to the face, hands and ankle, Mr. McLaughlan is an inmate of Wanganui hospital, where he is progressing satisfactorily. Mr. Benefield received only minor abrasions. The engine crew survived the fall and scrambled through the window of the cab. The engine and tender came to rest on the left side, with only the footplate and the side of the cab above water. The driver was the first to get clear and was able to extricate the fireman, who was dazed and had a leg caught under a seat in the cab. Both climbed on the side of the cab and there awaited assistance. 1 The engine had landed on a sandbank, this preventing it from toppling over into deep water, but the water rose nearly halfway up the boiler. The noise of the crash was heard by Mr. S. Neilson from a house nearby. Looking out of the window he saw against the light of the setting moon clouds off steam rising from the direction of the railway bridge. Doctor Arrives.

Hastily dressing he hurried to the scene, and was joined by Mr. A. D. Mackie. Meanwhile, Dr. R. A. Church, Marton, who happened to be passing, had arrived at the crossing near the bridge and immediately took charge of the rescue operations. He called for ropes, and while Mr. Neilson went to get the gear from the Wangaehu Station the ambulance arrived from Wanganui, bringing rope gear. Dr. Church was lowered over the side of the bridge and the driver and fireman were hauled up one at' a time in a knot chair. Apparently trouble developed about a. quarter of a mile from the bridge and near a bend at the foot of a hill. The sleepers are marked as if by a flange of a wheel. At the point of the main derailment the roadway was strewn with couplings, pieces of trucks, and iron bars which form part of the cattle stops, and the ends of sleepers. Apparently the engine tender was dragged along the edge of the bridge and toppled over still coupled to the engine, thus pulling the engine over. Nine wagons roHed down., the embankment. One was derailed but stood beside the track and two wagons and the van remained on the track. The train, consisted of an AB engine and tender, 13 mixed wagons, and a van. It carried a freight of mixed goods, including a truck of potatoes, three trucks of manure, and the remainder general merchandise consigned to Hawke’s Bay, Palmerston North, Te Kuiti, Greatford and Marton. Mr. J. Dow, district railway engineer, accompanied by members of the engineering staff, went to Wangaehu immediately and began organizing salvage work. No Serious Hold-up.

The derailment caused no serious hold-up of traffic. Passengers for Wanganui from the Auckland-Wellington express, instead of transferring to the usual 3.35 a.m. mixed train, were conveyed by car. There were minor delays to goods traffic. There was much confused wrecka o e after the accident, but shortly after dawn there was a gang of railwaymen engaged In clearing the line. It has not yet been decided when a start will be made to salvage the . locomotive, tender and wagon in the river and the wagons over the embankment, but this will probably he done on a bunday, when the line is clear of traffic. The Railways Department inspecting engineer, Mr. A. H. Murison, and the assistant-locomotive engineer, Mr. J. Richardson, arrived at Wangaehu from Wellington at 6.30 a.m. to inspect the wreckage. They travelled by car from Wellington. Probably two 40-ton cranes will be used in salvaging the engine from the bed of the river. No official explanation of the cause of the derailment is available. (Pictures on Page 5.)