LUCK OF THE “LIMITED”

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2314, 5 December 1925, Page 9

LUCK OF THE “LIMITED”

BUMPING WHEEL DRAGGED HALF A MILE. TRAIN PULLED UP BEFORE MISHAP. [Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, December 4. The daylight “Limited” arrived hero at nine this morning ten hours late. The passengers stated that after passing through Wairaaha a suuaen bumping and shaking alarmed those in the first class car just behind the ladies’ car as the train was swinging round the curves on the long pull up to the Poraotaroa tunnel. Commissioner Hoggard, Head of the Salvation Army of New Zealand, was in that carriage, accompanied by Mrs Hoggard, He saw through the window that the track was being churned up, so he climbed on the platform handrails and waved his coat to attract the driver’s attention. The driver, Arthur Powan, at this moment feeling the heavy drag on his load, saw stones and dust being thrown up all round the track. H" pulled up in about a chain length. Examination showed that the front axle of the turning truck of the car had broken in half, shattering one wheel and pulling the other off the track. A few more yards the whole train might have been pulled over Fortunately the train was climbing a very steep grade instead of running down one. Mr J. C. Entrican, a passenger, said he should say the carriage in which he rode dragged about half a mile. He says the ladies remained wonderfully cool. There were three in the first-class and four in the second-class. On examination of the damaged ca* it was seen that the broken wheel had remained on the rails and the whole one that had come off lay inside the track. There were about eighty passengers on the train at the time of the accident.