ENGINE TENDER DERAILED ON MAIN TRUNK

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 August 1947, Page 4

ENGINE TENDER DERAILED ON MAIN TRUNK

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 13. Through a cause not yet explained, the tender of the locomotive drawing the Auckland to Wellington express was derailed about a mile south of Halcombe, and seven miles north of Feilding, at 3f*.'sO a.m. The accident occurred while the train was running down a slight incline and along a bank, 12 feet below which was a marsh. Neither the engine nor any. of the 10 cars and the guard’s van left,the track. The driver brought the train, which was travelling from 30 to 35 miles an hour, to a smooth stop. : Few of the full load of passengers were aware of anything amiss. A delay of three hours 20 minutes occurred before the train was on its way again. It reached Wellington nearly four hours late. The express was on time when it passed through Halcombe station. It was making average speed when the leading bogy on the tender jumped the rails as the engine was running down a gentle, incline and about to take a bridge two chains away on an upgrade. Passengers were either asleep or dozing, and none except one in the front carriage, who said he felt a sudden jerk, noticed the accident. A goods train following about two hours behind the express was halted when it arrived at Halcombe. Its engine was detached and sent down the line to pull the express back-to Halcombe station while the arduous task of getting the heavy express engine back on the rails was undertaken in the darkness. The goods engine was then transferred to the • front of the express, and provided steam for heating the carriages. The line was cleared soon after 7 a.m., and the express engine, a K class oil burner, was run back to Marton for preliminary examination. Later it ha’uled the stranded goods train from Halcombe to Palmerston North.