ENGINE DRIVER'S PERILS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9857, 27 July 1914, Page 2

ENGINE DRIVER'S PERILS.

I myself have seen men engaged m !? e f, nginG emerge from the tunnel practically unconscious, bleeding at the ears and nostrils.", This startling statement was contained in a correspondent's letter, of which a summary & PP® a , re d iu the "Otago Daily Times" ot Saturday lost. It referred to a condition of affairs alleged to exist within .few miles of Dunedin, in connection with the Mihiwaka tunnel, near Port Chalmers, and the letter was directed *°. * .condemnation of the practice of utilising two engines to draw a train through the tunnel. A reporter of the Otago Daily Times," who made enquiries into the matter on Wednesday, was given to understand that the statement was only a strong way of describing the state of affairs which existed up till about a fortnight ago. A number °f who were spoken to stated that for months and even years, this tunnel had been dreaded by drivers and firemen. With a single engine, they 8 t W iowetipw, but when two locomotives belched their poisonous fumes into the air the result was sometimes appalling. Some weeks ago, it is. stated, a heavy goods trains, with two engine was going through the tunnel end the atmosphere became so unsupportable that the stoker in the rear engine was lying on the floor of the cab unconscious, while the stoker in the front engine was in nearly as bad a condition. The engines began to slacken, and, owing to the condition of the stokers, it was impossible to get up speed again. The driver of the foremost engine felt his senses going, and, fearful lest he also became unconscious, and the train rush backwards into Sawyer's Bay, he jammed on the brakes, and, leaving his engine, sought the driver of the second locomotive. Together they abandoned the train, and walked to the end of the tunnel. Recuperating in the fresh air, they returned, and were able to get the train out of the tunnel after it had been in for a total period of forty-five minutes. In the meantime it had been standing without drivers and with its firemen in the condition described. One of the firemen did not recover consciousness until he had been brought to the open air. In justice to the Department it had, on a report being made concerning this incident, immediately decreed that trains with two engines should not be taken through the tunnel.