CARRIAGE AXLE BREAKS

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 September 1938, Page 2

CARRIAGE AXLE BREAKS

WELLINGTON TRAIN DELAYED [PJEB PBESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, September 6. The axle of one carriage on to-day’s 5.9 pan. Wellington-Waterloo train, with more than 200 passengers aboard, broke after the train left the main line to take the branch line to Waterloo. No one was injured. The carriage was the third from the engine. There were six behind it. It was carried along the rails by the combined weight of the engine and carriages in front and rear, smashing а. number of sleepers and finally coming to rest 250 feet from where the axle broke, its front end resting on the brink of a culvert bridge across a small stream 10 feet, below. The onlv damage to the carriage bodywork was to three floor boards which were ripped up for a yard. There was a full complement of passengers. 72. in the car. The train had travelled 50 yards from the signal post near the junction of the Hutt and Waterloo lines when the mishap occurred and its speed would not have been more than 10 miles an hour. All following trains on the Hutt line were held up until б. p.m.. by which time the carriages at' the rear’ of the damaged one were removed from the junction to allow the through passage of the following rail traffic. The Waterloo rail service from Petone onwards was cancelled for the rest of the night, buses taking the passengers for the Waterloo line from Petone. The General Manager of Railways (Mr. G. H. Mackley). who was at the scene of operations tonight, stated that the Waterloo service would be' running as usual tomorrow morning.

The leading axle of the leading bogey broke just inside the boss of the wheel which corresponds to the inner hub on a motor-car wheel. The carriage did not leave the rails, the rear bogeys being still on and the leading bogey resting on the sleepers within the rails.

There were hundreds of people at the scene shortly after the accident. Of those aboard some made a hasty exit from the carriages. Others waited to see what would be done about getting the rest of the way home. Passengers from" the following trains with their hundreds of workers returning to their homes had to wait an hour at Petone station and went up to the scene of the