RAILWAY LINE BLOCKED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 21 September 1928, Page 5

RAILWAY LINE BLOCKED.

TRUCKS DERAILED NEAR PALMER STON NORTH. NO PASSENGERS INJURED. (By Telegraph —Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., Sept. 20. Serious dislocation of the Main Trunk railway services has been caused through the derailment tills evening of 17 wagons attached to the' mixed train leaving Wanganui at 4.12 p.m. and due at Palmerston North at 7:57. The passengers were unhurt. Just after passing- the Boundary Road crossing the passengers felt a humping, evidently the result of a wagon axle breaking and causing the , vehicle to jump the rails, and a few seconds before the smash sparks were seen emitting from under a truck. About 20 chains farther on the train passed a siding at "which a rake of three trucks loaded with cement -pipes was standing. 'The derailed wagon caught these and dragged them along, upending them, and these in turn caused the derailment of the rest of the train.

The breaking of the couplings brought the Westinghouse brfi-ke immediately into action and this saved the rear portion of the train; including two passenger coaches from being involved in the general upheaval. The wreckage of the "wagons involved in tlie smash is 'complete, and it will be 24 hours -before the line is again cle&r. Postal hampers of English mail for. Wellington and the South Island, hampers and general merchandise, including a consignment of flour, was scattered in all directions. 'The department sent out motor-ears to convey the passengers to their destinations, and arrangements are being made to transfer the Main. Trunk passengers on arrival at Palmerston North on the south and Bunnythorpe on the north.