SLIP STRIKES TRAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 July 1939, Page 12

SLIP STRIKES TRAIN

IN MANAWATU GORGE.

[per press association.]

WELLINGTON, July 17.

Passengers by the Napier to Wellington mail train to-day had an unusual and uncomfortable experience. Shortly after leaving Hastings a severe snowstorm was encountered, and although the train was not delayed to any serious extent ihere were some points, especially in deep cuttings, where the train was slowed down. The train left Woodville a few minutes late, and with fine weather ahead it was expected that the time-table would be adhered to, but just as the train had travelled about a mile through Manawatu Gorge it was pulled up suddenly. The engine-driver had noticed some shingle falling on the line and he applied the brakes.

As soon as the train stopped a huge slip comprised of stones and boulders came down between the rear of the engine and the front half of a secondclass carriage following it. The tender of the engine was almost covered, while a big head was piled up against the carriage. Fortunately the pressure of the slip was confined to the first fall, otherwise the consequences might have been much more serious. The carriage was immediately evacuated and an inspection of the trouble satisfied those in charge that there was no hope of the engine being moved either way. Two messengers were dispatched on foot to the nearest telephone at the gorge entrance on the Woodville side, and an engine was dispatched from Woodville. This took the remainder of the train back to Woodville.

In the meantime a north-bound train from Wellington to Napier wets held up at Ashhurst and its passengers were taken through the gorge- in railway buses which were hurriedly requisitioned from Palmerston North. The passengers were subsequently taken north by the Napier-Wellington train and the passengers for stations south of Woodville were dispatched on the former north-bound train.

Every effort was made by the railway authorities at both sides of the gorge to get the passengers to their destinations, and there were unavoidable delays. One of these was caused by one of the over-loaded ’buses: breaking a spring on a rough patch, in the gorge. It was fortunate that the Gorge road was open for traffic, as a slip had occurred about half-way through the gorge early in the morning, and it was only cleared shortly before the railway buses went through.

ESCAPE FROM DISASTER.

An inspection of the embedded engine revealed what a narrow escape all concerned had from a major disaster. The heavy overnight rain had put the engine-driver on his guard, and he not only kept a rigid look-out, but travelled at a moderate speed. Luckily he saw the trouble in time to pull up before any damage was done. It was estimated that some 20 tons of boulders and stones came down, and it would not have required much of this quantity to cause a derailment of any of the rear part of the train had it been struck while in motion.

The point of the line where the engine was pulled up was only a few feet from the brink of the gorge, and when the passengers surveyed, the surroundings and saw a flooded river below they had reason to realise that the subsequent inconvenience they were put to was negligible compared with their escape. Trains bound both north and south were well behind schedule, but the latter - arrived in Wellington in plenty of time for passengers and mails to connect. with the inter-island steamer exvice.

The snowstorm was the heaviest, experienced in Hawke’s Bay for many years. It was some inches deep for miles on the railway track, and the whole countryside from near Hastings to Woodville was covered. Stock will fare badly, but fortunately lambing this year in the district is two or three weeks late because of a dry Autumn, and losses in this section will not be severely felt. Roads in the Takapau district were several inches under snow, and travelling by car was out of the question. Several cars were to be seen stranded in cuttings without any possibility of getting them out until a thaw sets in. The same district was under snow on the previous Monday; but, as was the case then, Woodville and towns further south escaped.