TURNED TURTLE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 120, 25 May 1925, Page 5

TURNED TURTLE

SENSATIONAL HAPPENING NEAR

TAUMARUNUI

70-TON ENGINE THROWN FROM

THE LINE.

(BX mEQIHPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

TAUMAKUNTJI, This Day.

Shortly after 7 o'clock this morning a big A.B. engine, weighing over 70 tons, was thrown from the line on a bluff near the Kakahi salmon hatcheries, and about nine miies from Taumarunui. The engine was returning to Taumarunui after banking the mail train, which was running very late. No warning was received by the crew, and just as the engine arrived at the spot the complete bank gave way and took the ballast from under the line. The engine turned turtle. The driver was thrown clear, but the fireman, named Johansen, was pinned underneath, and had to be released. He suffered only slight injuries to his back, however.

The engino is now lying on its back 20ft from the line- The slip is larger in mangnitude than the one at Piriaka, andwill take two days to clear. Fireman Johansen, speaking to * pressman, said he was lucky to be alive. "How the mail train and the Limited got over is a wonder to me," he said. If they had been caught, it would have been worse than the Ongarue disaster, as there is nearly a straight drop to the road below ■ and to the Wariganui Elver further down still."