ENGINE DERAILED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 10

ENGINE DERAILED

SAND BLOWN ON LINE STRONG SOUTH-WEST WIND • i DELAY NEAR PORT CHALMERS [by telegraph—own correspondent] DUXEDIX, Thursday „ • A strong south-west wind which lists'* prevailed during the past few days, and which did not abate until this evening, was responsible for the minor derail- . ment of an engine on the Port Chalmers line to-day, and for the fact that a number of residents of Mussel Bay will require to do their spring cleaning all over again. The wind reached its greatest velocity during the early hours of this morning, and the sand which has been used to fill in the Mussel Bay reclamation area, dry and loose after the rainless weather of the past month, was blown toward the town of Port Chalmers, covering the railway lines at the Mussel Bay crossing to a depth of something like a foot. ~„f

The result was that when; the engin? of the 7.13 a.m. train Jfrom Pot! Chalmers reached the crossing the front wheels left the rails. Fortunately, the driver, perhaps foreseeing the possibility of some fSucbt occurrence, was approaching the station very slowly, and he had no difficulty in stopping the train before the mishap became more serious. A delay of some 25 minutes resulted before the service could ba resumed, and for the remainder of the day it was necessary to keep a careful watch orx: the crossing to prevent any repetition of the accident. Most of tlio residents in the immediate neighbourhood had completed thwr spring cleaning, but they found this morning that their labour had been in vain, and that they would have to start again a task which is usually regarded as being required only once » year. In a resident on arising found that lfe could not open his back door on account of the amount of sand banked up against it, while sand had collected on furniture, ornaments, and under the carpets and linoleums in nearly every house.