MAIN TRUNK OPEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 7, 9 January 1945, Page 6

MAIN TRUNK OPEN

COAL DRAIN OF DIVERTED TRAINS

P.A. "_ WANGANUI, January 8. Alter being blocked for 51 hours because of the first express from Wellington to Auckland being partially derailed by a subsidence which occurred m the track three and a half miles north of Raurimu early on Saturday morning, the Main Trunk line was open to through traffic again at 5 a.m. today. The first service to pass over the affected section since the derailment was a freight train bound from Auckland to Wellington, which left Taumarunui at 1.30 a.m. A restriction has been imposed limiting the speed of .all trains to six miles an hour. In addition, a member of the maintenance staff is on duty to.pilot trains over a temporary structure which • has been built to bridge the wash-out. While the main line was closed, express trains running between Auckland and Wellington were diverted to the Stratford-Okahukura line, but freight traffic had been accumulating at the stations on both sides of the derailment. When the engineers gave authority for trains to be.run over the section early this morning, a start was made with moving the delay tonnage. Special freight trains were arranged, and according to advice received by the district traffic manager's office at Wanganui this afternoon, all I delay traffic has been moved and the! position is normal. j Because of the uncertainty as to when the line would be clear, however, three express trains which left Auckland for Wellington on Sunday night, and three from Wellington to Auckland, ran via the Stratford line. The six cars which were derailed, two of them down a bank, were lifted by 40-ton cranes during the weekend, and all but one have been pulled back to Raurimu, where they are on \ a siding before being sent to the workshops. One car was taken on to Oio. The diversion of the Main Trunk expresses to the Stratford line causedv a heavy demand on men and engines attached to the Wanganui locomotive depot, and in particular meant serious inroads into the supplies of coal. The position was accentuated by the steep gradients between Marton and Hawera, a factor responsible for the consumption of much extra coal. Normally one engine of the KA class is sufficient to haul a Main Trunk express between Paekakariki and Auckland, but two engines were required for every express running between Marton and Stratford during the weekend. In all 12 Main Trunk expresses were diverted to the longer route, and the extra coal ■ consumed would have been sufficient to run several special trains between Wellington and Wanganui. Stocks of hard coal shipped to Wanganui from the North Island and most suitable for express work are nearly exhausted. For some months the depot has been receiving supplies*- from the open cast mine at Waitewhena, near Ohura, on the Stratford line, but this coal is suitable only for freight trains, mainly because the locomotive crews using it must stop more often to clean their fires.