JOHNSONVILLE LINE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 117, 20 May 1941, Page 8

JOHNSONVILLE LINE

TWO UNITS DAMAGED

Severe damage was caused to two electric units which were involved in a collision on the Johnsonville line this morning. Citybound workers from Ngaio, Khandallah, and Johnsonville, who found they could not catch their usual trains, were brought in by bus, or taxi, or walked from Ngaio through the Kaiwarra Gorge. The mishap occurred at about 7 a.m. on the stretch of line along the side of the gorge between Wadestown and Ngaio. The indirect cause was the sValling of a goods train on the outward line to Johnsonville. The next outward train from the city, an electric unit of two cars, was held up because of this, and it was apparently stationary when the following outward unit, also consisting of two cars, crashed into the rear of it. The shock smashed the rear end of the stationary unit, buckling the metal work, and creating havoc among the lamps, electric fittings, couplings, and the driver's empty rear compartment. Further along the car the buckling effect of the collision was apparent in twisted side metal panels, and broken windows on both sides. Little damage was done to the front driving unit, although the shock gave the driver a nasty jolt. DRIVER'S ESCAPE. In the second unit, at the front of which the driver was seated, the damage was considerable, the front of his small compartment being forced back, although fortunately not far enough to cause him injury. It was the left side, opposite to where he was seated, which suffered most. Here the front seat was forced up and back, and covered with splintered material and broken glass. Other seats in the front of this car were twisted, and the metal flooring was forced up. The damage to the rear car did not appear to amount to much more than strained couplings. Both units were almost empty, and in neither were any passengers near the most damaged parts of the cars. The trains were on the outward run, to bring back city-bound traffic. At all stations along the line, beItween 8 and 9 a.m., crowds gathered to catch their trains, and, when word went round that the service was suspended, they assembled at the nearest bus stops. For a time, until relief was arranged, they were unable to obtain transport, and although passing- motorists gave-what help they could, little real relief resulted until extra buses arrived. Until the blockage of the line had been cleared by removal of.the units, neither of which was derailed, City Council buses and some taxis were commissioned to take passengers to the city, but many Ngaio residents, after a wait at : the stopping places, walked through the gorge, trying, on the way, to get lifts on passing cars, which were almost invariably full of passengers from further up the line.