A BOVINE BUSINESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22790, 27 January 1936, Page 10

A BOVINE BUSINESS

COW DERAILS TRAIN PASSENGERS’ LUCKY ESCAPE CARRIAGES AND VAN LEAVE TRACK There must have been a breathless, anxious moment or two for passengers on a southern excursion train last evening when half the carriages decided to deflect from the due northerly direction which the engine was endeavouring to take. It all happened because a cow was too slow for a railway engine. The train struck the cow, the cow struck the points lever, and the lever struck the points, which moved. And that was how it all began. It ended with three carriages, a van and an engine’s tender off the rails, but still on their wheels, and a few passengers wondering what had happened and what was going to happen next.

The train was returning to Clinton from Tuatapere and as it approached a crossing at Arthurton a cow .wandered on to the track. The cow was hit by the engine and hurled several yards, being thrown on to a points lever with the result that half of the train was diverted on to another line. The tremendous jerk caused the three carriages and the van which had not negotiated the crossing by the time the points had been shifted to be hurled from the rails, but fortunately not one of them capsized. The shock also caused the tender behind the locomotive to leave the rails. The cars were badly damaged, but the passengers all escaped being injured, although several of them suffered slightly from shock. A break-down -train was sent from Invercargill to the scene of the mishap, and arrangements were made to take the passengers to their destinations by motor car.