RAIN AND SLIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 30, 4 August 1931, Page 17

RAIN AND SLIPS

MAIN TRUNK AFFECTED.

UP LIMITED DELAYED

(By Telegraph.—Pi e>» Association) ' AUCKLAND, 3rd August. 'A. slip which buried pd.it of the Mam T,runk railway, line north of,Mangaweka on ■■Sunday, night delayed the airival at -Auckland of the Limited express from Wellington, to day. A goods train, nearly ran into the debris earlier in the eyeuing, the driver 'applying the brakeg rjust in time. The Limited expie&b which leit Auckland on Sunday evening for Wellington got through without delay. i .A message sent by telephone to' Mangaweka caused the north-bound ex-1 press to be held up, and the train remained, in the station yard at Manga-1 weka from midnight until -i a.m. Excessively heavy ram had fallen in the Taihape district for several days, and much of the country, whicli is heavily wooded, was waterlogged. ■The cutting where the slip occurred is., situated between Mangaweka _ and Utiku, about a mile from the Mangaweka" viaduct ani not far from -the scene of'the slips which occurred last winter. - As soon as word was received that tlie line was blocked threo or four gangs of men, wero dispatched to the sceuo with spades and picks. Bain poured in, torrents the whole time the dobris was being cleared away, which was effected by-3.30 a.m. Slips have also blocked the main highway between Mangaweka and Taihape. .Repair gangs were handicapped by the heavy rain, which was still falling-to-Say, and a'report from the district : states that motor-cays, will,he unable to get through for two days. It will' probably bo two weeks before heavy lorries will tio.ab^e to uso the road.