SPEED OF SEDDON TRAIN ‘MIGHT HAVE BEEN FAIRLY FAST’

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 April 1948, Page 6

SPEED OF SEDDON TRAIN ‘MIGHT HAVE BEEN FAIRLY FAST’

(P.A.) BLENHEIM, This Day. The principal interest in the inquiry into the Seddon railway disaster, which was resumed this morning, was in the evidence of the assistant guard on the wrecked train, Leslie Richard Horace Goodson, and the fireman, Edward Donald Black*burn. . . - k . Goodson said he joined the tram at Blenheim. He thought the driver had handled the train well to Seddon. Thereafter to the scene of the crash the run “might have been fairly fast,” but he could recall nothing that gave any cause for alarm. In evidence, Blackburn said he had been with Gurr on February 10, when the 937 was on the run up to Blenheim and the 108 back. Gurr had handled these trains very well and the same could be said for the trips south of Kaikoura. Witness said that on February 25 he and Gurr were booked to run a goods train till it crossed with the 104. There had been a lot of hard shunting before they got away and they had not left till after 5 a.m. When Gurr had come on duty at 2 a.m., said Blackburn, he appeared to be in his usual health. Gurr was definitely a man of sober habits. Witness said that until they got to the “up-home” signal at Blenheim he thought the train’s speed would be about 45 m.p.h. The run to Seddon was normal. When he continued his evidence yesterday afternoon the guard of the train, Roy Parmenter, said that at Blenheim he was required to test only the newly-coupled carriage, but he had looked at all the brakes. The tests were satisfactory. Referring to the over-running of the Blenheim platform, Mr Parmenter said that since he had been .at Picton he could not recall any instances of the station’s being overrun. Placing of Carriages Mr Parmenter said he had never given the placing of carriages much thought, but after seeing the accident he would say that had the steel cars been placed behind the engine they would have got just about as badly knocked about as the wooden ones. As guard he was in charge of the train. He had been told on leaving Tuamarina who the driver was, and had remarked that to his knowledge it was the first time Mr Gurr had driven an express. Mr Parmenter agreed with Mr Wicks (representing the Cresswell family) that the Dashwood section was a tricky part of the line. Mr Parmenter said he had noticed nothing unusual until a matter of moments before the train piled up. Downhill from the top of Dashwood, Mr Parmenter said, he had been watching the brake gauge, and the driver had applied the brakes almost at the same time as witness had expected. To a question about making up time, witness said that it was left to a driver’s discretion where he made up time. Incident at Blenheim Mr Parmenter said he had not had an opportunity to speak to Mr Gurr at Tuamarina. He had noticed nothing abnormal about the speed from Tuamarina until the train was in the Blenheim yards. He had not spoken to the driver about the type of stop he had made. He had not considered it necessary. No passenger had come to him, but when he was waving the train back someone on the platform called: “You had better get the brakes fixed before you leave here.” The driver had gone normally over the Awatere bridge—almost cautiously. The stop at Seddon had been a good one, so no delay was occasioned. “I had no complaints from any passengers at any part of the journey,” added witness. When asked if he had had any complaints at Seddon after the accident, he added that he had been asked any amount of questions by passengers, and passengers had complained to him about the speed of the train. “I can remember passengers saying that we were speeding/’ he said, “I remember one lady saying to me while I was bandaging her head: ‘By , we were belting.’ ”