RAILWAY MISHAP

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 157, 4 June 1934, Page 8

RAILWAY MISHAP

TWO TRAINS COLLIDE. EXPRESS AND BR ANCH SERVICE SMASH AT SOCKBURN. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, June 3. Two passenger trains were involved in a sensational smash on the Sockburn railway crossing early on Saturday evening, when the engine drawing a train from Little River crashed into the luggage wagon at the back of the south express from Invercargill. The train from the south had been pulled up at the crossing because of engine trouble, and was apparently not seen by the driver of the engine following, it until only fifty yards separated the two trains. With a terrific noise that was heard almost a mile away, the second engine tore its way into the wagon", smashing the steel understructure, forcing the wagon bodily some feet into the air and encasing itself almost inextricably between the wagon sides. The big . engine was buried in the wreckage and luggage so completely that only the rear tender remained uncovered by the roof of the van. The impact was so great that oven the front engines on the express were damaged slightly. The passengers on both trains were thrown suddenly from their seats on to the carriage floors. Luggage followed them and in the confusion it was naturally thought that there had been a major disaster, but by some unusual stroke of good fortune not a soul on either of the trains was badly hurt. There were some passengers who received shock and bad bruises and one had to be treated -at Christchurch Public Hospital. Even the train crews, including the driver and fireman of the Little River engine, escaped. The luggage van was crushed and twisted and burst, and its contents flung for many yards. The wreckage and pieces of broken steel covered the lines. The guard’s van on the express was derailed, as was portion of the telescoped luggage wagon, and the chassis of the postal wagon oil the same train was badly damaged. The wreckage was cleared away and the main line ready for use a.gain before 1 a.m. The mishap delayed the arrival of the south express in Christchurch for nearly two hours, with a consequent delay in the departure of the steamer for Wellington. SKID ON WET RAILS. The smash occurred at approximately 7.20 p.m., six minutes before the express was due to arrive in Christchurch. Two locomotives were pulling the train, which was carrying a heavy load of passengers, when engine trouble developed in the second locomotive just after passing Hornby. The train was pulled up right across the Main South Rood at Sockburn, and it was discovered that a break had occurred in what is known as the journal portion of one of the axles of the engine. The express had been stopped barely a minute when passengers who were leaning from the windows, anxious to find the cause of the delay, saw the oncoming train from Little River not seventy yards away. These people naturally thought that the second train would pull up, but the driver did not see the tail light on the rear van of the express until he was only 50 yards away. He applied the brakes immediately, but on the wet rails they were unable to stop the train before it had reached the express. CONFUSED WRECKAGE. The nose of the engine cut through the rear van like a knife, lifting it into the air and squeezing the luggage into a compact mass at the far ■end. The engine buried itself completely, the sides of the van encasing it as'neatly as a shed. Tlio undercarriage of the van was smashed into an unrecognisable mess of broken planks, steel and iron girders and wheels. The rear bogey, with its four wheels, although keeping to the rails, was torn from its bearings and forced by the cow-catcher of the engine close up against the leading wheels, which left the track and ploughed into the shingle. The couplings and stanchions were twisted and the broken sides- of the van were torn open, revealing indescribable confusion inside, deacf rabbits hanging from the sides of the encased engine, and vegetables spilling on to the line from a burst sack. A mass of shattered woodwork was hopelessly mixed with children’s prams, passengers’ luggage, broken suitcases and packing cases, twisted bicycles and battered boxes. The engine finished up with its nose very close to the rear of the second last van on the express (the postal van), the rear couplings of which were severely damaged, although the van did not leave the line. The. guard’s van, which was that nearest the last passenger carriage, was derailed and the couplings damaged. The rear bogey was forced off the line. The engine of the Little River tram was slightly damaged structurally on one side. At the front of the second locomotive of the express the cow-catcher, couplings a:nd some of the brake fittings were twisted and broken. The first passenger car on the train was of tlie old wooden type; and this was the only passenger van damaged. The drawbar of the coupling, steel two inches thick and four inches deep, was bent back as if it was soft metal. The iron railings round the rea.r platform and the roof supports were broken clear, and the automatic air brake couplings were broken off and pieces of metal were scattered round the track. The passengers in this car received a very severe shaking. TRAIN CREW’S ESCAPE. That so much damage was . done at the front of the train while intervening cars were only shaken, is explained by the inertia of the two massive express locomotives. The shock was readily passed from one light steel passenger car to another along the train, but the locomotives acted as a. block to it and much of its force was spent on the wooden carriage immediately behind them. Eye-witnesses were amazed at the miraculous escape of the crew of the Little River engine. The cow-catcher lifted the van on the express high in the air, and as the engine ploughed into the train in front of it the fireman and driver were thrown against the controls with the force of the crash. They had only the glass windows of the cabin to protect them froin flying splinters or wood and metal. The glass was cracked but not broken, but a steel girder, part of what had been the floor of the van ahead, was forced through an open window of the cabin a few "inches past the driver’s head. He narrowly escaped serious injury. When the train had stopped he and the fireman found themselves temporarily shut in in a double-walled prison, wjth the van resting on the smoke stack of the' engine. STEEL CAR SAFETY. It is thought that only the light construction of the rear van, which was thus able to give way to the shock of

the impact and act as a buffer, prevented more serious damage. It seems certain that, had the Little River train been travelling at full speed or had it been a bigger train, nothing could have saved disaster for the passengers in both trains. , If there had been a van of strong and modern design attached to the rear of the express, instead of a light “road-sider,” the whole of the front train would have had to take the full force of the tremendous impact. As it was, it is highly probable that only the strongly-made modern steel cars which are used on the south express saved the telescoping of a great part of the train. • No one was travelling* in the rear van at the time of the accident, but members of- the train crews in the vans on both the express and the Little River train wore badly shaken about. The guard of the second train was in the, van behind the engine, and was thrown to the floor, receiving a severe shock. There were only a few passengers on tho Little River train, not more than ten, and all of them were badly shaken and bruised. . PASSENGERS’ EXPERIENCE. Luggage falling from the racks, two women fainting, passengers thrown from their seats and others who had been looking out of the windows being bruised and cut as they were banged against the window frames, were described by a woman passenger in the second to last passenger car of the express. When the train stopped, she said, the passengers were naturally curious and looked out of the windows. Sho saw the Little River train approaching and watched it for some time until she realised that it was likely to hit the express. She considered herself lucky to have withdrawn her head from the window before the impact. After that came the violent shock of the collision, accompanied by a tremendous noise and a violent rending crash. Then there was a deafening escape of steam as the pressure was released from the locomotive of the Little River train. In the carriage everything was confusion. POSITION OF SIGNALS. The accident could have been caused either by the driver of the Little River engine failing to see the automatic signal if it was against him, or by failure of the signal system itself. After the accident the driver and fireman both stated-that the signals in that section of the line between Hornby and the crossing were in favour of their train approaching. A woman eye-witness said that it would have been impossible for the driver to see the signals at the crossing ahead, because the lights were obscured by smoke from the two locomotives on the south express. An official of the Railway Department stated that, normally, with the express in the position in which it had pulled up, there would be the usual red signal against the oncoming Little River train and further back a caution signal against it. Visibility was bad. There was a misty, drizzling rain falling and no moonlight. The result was that the Little River train was so close to the express before the driver saw the rear lights of the van ahead that he did not have time to pull the train up. Misty conditions would considerably shorten the range of the engine’s powerful light.