EXPRESS HELD UP.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 168, 17 June 1936, Page 2

EXPRESS HELD UP.

THE GORGE AIISHAP. Due mainly to tlie delay caused by the fall of rock in the Manawafu Gorge, which damaged tlie permanent way over a bridge, the Napier-Welling-ton express arrived in Palmerston North yesterday afternoon an hour and 50 minutes late. The obstruction, it is understood, was found by a ganger and tlie express was held near the bridge while a gang of men repaired the rails sufficiently to allow it to proceed. Passengers told a “Standard” reporter that there had been two large boulders which hit the bridge; one about the size oi a butter box, damaging a girder and remaining wedged on the line. Tho opinion was advanced that it was quite large enough to have caused a derailment had not vigilance of the department s men proved ■effective. Even when the train was waiting to cross the bridge there were further falls, although they were only of a minor nature, being very small stones and pebbles which had evidently been loosened by the earlier fall.