LARGE SLIP ON RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19469, 27 October 1926, Page 12

LARGE SLIP ON RAILWAY.

TEE, MANAWATU GORGE.

SECOND FALL THIS WEEK. HAZARDOUS CLEARING WORK. SERIOUS DELAY ANTICIPATED. [BY TILEGB.APH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] PALMERSTON NORTH, Tuesday. The blockage on the railway line in the Mo.nawatu Gorge, which was caused on Tuusday morning by a landslide of large proportions, was made doubly serious by a further great fall of debris some timo last night. The second fall served to destroy aLI the clearing work which had been done on Sunday after--noon and yesterday. It is now feared that no trains will be able to get through the gorge this week. It was hoped to work last evening by the aid of acetylene flares at clearing away the great mass of debris from the first slip, which covered the railway line in the gorge for a distance of three chains at a point close to tho mouth of the second tunnel from the Palmerston North end, but in the late afternoon intermittent falls of rock and earth from far up the steep face of the hillside created too great a menace to life and limb. At about 8 p.m. the men were taken off the job. It was a fortunate decision, for during the night the face of the slip, which extends upwards for a distance of 200 or 300 ft., broke away near the peak and rushed toward the river, filling in all the clearance effected by two days' labour. At about four o'clock this morning a pick and shovel gang had to commence all over again. The position now is worse, if anything, than when the job was first undertaken on Sunday. About midway up the face of the cliff, and far above the toilers near its foot, juts out a huge boulder, which is estimated to weigh between three and five tons. This and other loose matter may fall at any time. Even more ominous is a crack many yards in extent, which appears to indicate that a further fall of a serious nature is liable to occur at any moment. The position is extremely complicated and the work of reopening the line is hazardous.

This morning debris continued to fall at intervals. Such is the extent of the risk from this cause that it is problematical when it will be safe enough even to tranship passengers, for which purpose a track would have to be made across the steep incline of loosened earth and rock. Trains which ordinarily use this route between Hawke's Bay and Wellington are being diverted via the Wairarapa, while some passengers are making connection between the ranges by motorcaf from Woodville to Palmerston North and vice versa. A local company is now conducting a regular service, which at times is taxed to capacity. This would appear to be one of the most serious blockages which has occurred on the railway in the Dominion for some time past.