HUTT RAILWAY SMASH

Evening Star, Issue 25046, 13 December 1943, Page 2

HUTT RAILWAY SMASH

RESUMPTION OF INQUIRY ENGINE DRIVER'S EVIDENCE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 13. The inquiry into the Hutt line derailment of November 8 was resumed to-day. The driver of the train, James Ram Ritchie, was' called to give -evidence. He said he had been in the railway service for 23 years and had been driving on the Wellington-Upper Hutt section for about live years. He made a normal examination of the engine (W.A.B. 794) before taking it out of the shed and found nothing unusual. He drove a goods train to Upper*. Hutt. leaving Wellington aibout 4.45 a.m. Passing the scene of the subsequent accident at about 20 miles per hour, he noticed nothing unusual about tlfc track at that point. He examined the engine again at Upper Hutt and everything appeared to be in order. Therti were eight cars on the passenger train he'drove from Upper Hutt, leaving at 7.25. He carried out the usual terminal task of breaking, etc., at Upper Hutt. Approaching the vicinity of the accident the speed of tho train would be 30 to 35 miles per hour. He had previously shut off steam. The first unusual thing he felt was about 50 yards from the new ballast put down after the derailment of Agust 20. Th» engine gave a lurch as if it was going into a depression on the river side of the track. He knew there was something wrong. The ballast began to fly and the engine rocked violently. An emergency application of the brakes was made immediately from the point of the lurch, and the engine toppled over at it came to a He went to Haywards by car and rang through for assistance.

Ritchie said he had driven the same engine before and had never had any trouble with it. Driving a different type of engine the previous week he found nothing unusual about the track. The spring gear of W.A.B. 794 was in order when he examined the engine before taking, it out on November 8. To Mr Watson, witness said he had no occasion to make up time before the derailment. He endorsed the views expressed in. a letter from the E.F.C.A. to the railways management regarding the state of the track between Wellington and Upper Hutt. That was to say, in some places the state of the track was such as to warrant a reduction in speed. He did not think W.A.B. 794 was any rougher to drive than any other engine. To Mr Mollvridge, he said he was satisfied oil has reached the external parts of the compensating,gear during the oiling up on the morning of November 8. i

Alfred Ernest Sutton, the fireman of the engine, said the speed approaching the point of the derailment was approximately 30 miles per hour. He first noticed an unusual vibration under the floor of. the.cab. It rapidly became worse until finally the engine rolled over and ploughed into the bank on the right-hand side and came to a stop. He more or less retained his place on the engine. The driver had applied the brakes into the emergency position before witness could say anything to him about the vibration,Sutton said that practically all his railway, service in New Zealand had been on the Upper Hutt section. In the month preceding the. derailment ne did not rememiber feeling a bump there.

To Mr Watson: Since resuming work in October after overseas service , he had noticed a good many kicks and bumps on the Wellington-Upper Hutt section.

Robert Gordon, who drove W.A.B. 794 on the Friday and Saturday before the accident, said that on the Friday he noticed one or two defects in the engine. He recorded them and they were attended to. On the following day he booked further minor work to be done on the engine. None of the defects! was serious enough to make driving dangerous. W.A.B. 794 was an exceptionally good riding engine.