CAUSED A SHORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 46, 23 August 1939, Page 19

CAUSED A SHORT

WIRErFLOWN KITE

RAILWAY SERVICE UPSET

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. August 22. This morning someone ■ flew a kite with fine copper wire instead of string attached to it over an 11.000-volt feeder, which carries electric power from Addington to Woolston for the Christchurch-Lyttelton railway. The wire came down across the feeder line and the 1500-volt overhead gear of the railway line. The power was interrupted. electric train services were delayed, a , railway employe narrowly . -escaped., fatal electric shock, and members, ofthe public were exposed to the same risk. The interruption came just about 10 a.m. Patrol officers of the Public Works Department immediately set out to find the cause of the break and the crossing-keeper at Ensor's Road provided the necessary clue, when he informed the patrol that he had seen an electric flash some distance down the line. A train which pulled into the Woolston station carried a further clue, to the cause of the stoppage,. because it was trailing a long length of fine cotton-covered copper wire. Meanwhile patrols had found a further length of this wire hanging ; from the overhead railway wires. Because it looked like a piece of string the suspended length of wire was not at first regarded with suspicion and , a railway surfaceman was about to pull it down. Fortunately—for the hanging wire was then carrying 1500 volts—an electrical equipment officer warned him not to touch it.