TRAIN DERAILED.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 9002, 26 January 1906, Page 5

TRAIN DERAILED.

ACCIDENT NEAR MOMOHAKI.

Considerable alarm was created early this morning by jiews that the returning excursion tTain to Wanganui which left Hawera last evening after the Band Contest had been derailed. However, this feeling was immediately 6et at rest by the reassuring information that the accident had not resulted in any loss of life, but no particulars' could be obtained, except that a couple of carriages had left the rails at a point near Momohaki and that no eerious damage bad beeui done. The train leaving Hawora was pretty full, and though many of vthe passengers would have alighted before Momohaki wa& reached there etill must hay« been : a considerable number of persons on board, who. could hardly have spent- a very pleasant might. As the engine Jay on the rails it was imposible .to use ,the ordinary track even when repaired. A line was laid connecting with t-Tie rails running, through the goodsshed, and by fhis round about route trains have since been passing. The exact damage, donei to the engine .is not known. It .is standing right way up but a pair of bogey wheels are detached. ' Two carriages .followed the'engine. There were three Tails torn up, one of which wa6 thrust through the floor of the first car. PARTICULARS OF THE ACCIDENT. A HORRID SUSPICION. THAT THE LIKE WAS MALICIOUSLY INTERFERED WITH. (By Telegraph.— Special to Stae.) WAVERLEY, January 26. The special passenger train which left Hawera for Wanganui at 30.40 last night was dej ailed as -it .entered the Momohaki railway station, at about half-past eleven] o'clock. The passengers received a bad fright and severe, shaking, but beyond this no one was. hurt or injured. " , • Fortunately the train was slowjng up as it entered the station. Had it been travel-, ling at ordinary speed no doubt the con^ sequences would ,have been very serious) and it is more than probable that loss of life and serious, injuries would have to be chronicled. Owing to; the "slow speed at which the train ,wa&; moving- the: damage •sustained was not very great, but the .engine, which is now lying across the rails, 'is badly strand' Wid,. damaged, and \ will have to go -into, the- -shed for repairs, ia& also. will the .carnages. , '. •Thanks to the telegraph and telephone system, a special . -,train, , was immediately despatched, from to the scene of the occurrence; and ;the passengers were conveyed to .their destination with only a few hours' delay and' little inconvenience. The railway authorities are to be highly complimented for their promptitude in this respect, the needs and requirements of the public being their first consideration, and were attended to with the "utmost celerity.. 1 The most unpleasant part of the whole I affair is the suspicion that the points at the entrance to vie Momohaki station had • been maliciously interfered' with By some person or .persons at present unknown. When daylight came an examination showed that the points padlock hod been unlocked and , removed* and a small 6tone placed between the points to keep them partly open, thereby causing the wheels of the engine and carriages to run on two rails on each 6ide,at once, resulting in the inevitable derailment." ' The lock could <mly have been removed by means of a special railway key. A. gang, of 30. mea. are at work (since .daylight) under, fcEe of Mr Biss, railway engineer, pf Wanganui., clearing. away the debris, shifting rails and arranging for through traffic of trains, which must for the present proceed by the line winning .through the shed.