ACCIDENT ON THE RAILWAY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1189, 14 December 1894, Page 38

ACCIDENT ON THE RAILWAY.

THE EXPRESS PROM NAPIER DELAYED. By Telegraph. —Press Association. Woodtille, December 6. The express train from Napier to Wellington has been stuck up in the Gorge, on the Woodville side of the tunnel. It is reported that a tender left the rails in crossing one of the iron viaducts, and that 15 sleepers over the B viaduct are smashed to pieces. The tender was kept up by a girder, and thus a more serious accident was prevented. An engine has left Danevirke to bring back the carriages of the express train. The railway accident in the Manawatu Gorge was within an ace of being a terrible catastrophe. Just before reaching the large viaduct between the two tunnels the tender left the rails. It was impossible to stop the train, and in a few seconds the engine and tender were on the viaduct, the latter bumping heavily on the sleepers, which were cut to a depth of several inches by the flange of the wheels. Immediately the solid ground was ireached the train was stopped the engine and tender on the one side of the viaduct, the trucks on the structure, and the passenger cars on the other side. Only the weight of the cars behind kept the tender from going over. The ravine spanned by the viaduct is 50 to 60 feet in depth. The only damage done was to the tender and the bridge, the sleepers of the latter being: badly cut and knocked about.