TWO DERAILMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 98, 22 October 1938, Page 10

TWO DERAILMENTS

WAIRARAPA LINE

LITTLE DAMAGE CAUSED

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

MASTERTON, This Day.

A derailment on the Rimutaka incline last night caused considerable delay to a special passenger train conveying weekend excursionists to the Wairarapa. About a mile and a half from the bottom of the hill the buffer of a carriage broke and two of the four wheels of the front bogey left the rails. Passengers were hardly aware of the mishap, which occurred when the train was coming to a standstill.

The train left Wellington at about 7 o'clock, and was due to reach Masterton at about 11 o'clock last night. At Upper Hutt it was found necessary to attach an additional carriage to the train, making a total of seven carriages and a van. It was this extra carriage that was involved in the accident. There -were about 250 passengers aboard the train.

It is not certain whether the buffer broke before the wheels were derailed or whether the derailment was the cause of the buffer breaking. A repair gang from Cross Creek proceeded to the scene and fitted a new buffer to the carriage and replaced the wheels on the line. The train then proceeded to Cross Creek, where the carriage concerned was removed. The train arrived in Masterton at 2.35 a.m., nearly four hours late. A further mishap occurred to the north-bound mail train this morning, the guard's van being derailed at the summit station yard. Particulars of this mishap are not available.