SHATTERED BRIDGE

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 150, 22 December 1945, Page 6

SHATTERED BRIDGE

ALMOST WRECKS TRAIN

SYDNEY, December 21

More than a ton of bricks crashed from a shattered overhead railway bridge as a crowded express from Melbourne thundered through Fish Creek near Goulburn at 50 miles an hour early this morning. A fireman on the second engine was killed instantly and disaster was narrowly averted. As the crowded express sped through the cutting beneath the bridge, the wheels were barely inches from the masses of brickwork beside the track. Passengers screamed and some women began to panic when the express was brought to a screeching halt, throwing them from their seats.

A few minutes before the express reacted the spot a truck had smashed into the parapet of the bridge, which spans a 40ft deep railway cutting. A 15ft section of the bridgework was shattered and crashed into the cutting. Some of the brickwork landed less than six inches' from the rails.

A portion of the brickwork was left hanging from the parapet, and when the express, which was being drawn by two engines, thundered through the cutting, the vibration caused the remaining brickwork to fall. A number of bricks struck a stanchion beneath the bridge and ricochetted into the driving cabin of the second engine, striking a fireman above the heart. The driver immediately applied the brakes. Passengers who crowded round the smashed brickwork were amazed that the bricks had not fallen directly on to the track.

The train was delayed 40 minutes while another fireman was obtained.