TRAINS IN COLLISION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23685, 17 December 1938, Page 23

TRAINS IN COLLISION

THREE MEN KILLED ENGINES TELESCOPED (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY. Dec. 9. Three members of the crews were killed and three others had extraordinary escapes from death when a goods train and a parcels train collided head-on between Hughenden and Richmond, Queensland. Both engines and a guard's van were telescoped, and engines and trucks were thrown with terrific force from the rails, which were torn up for some distance. One engine partly buried itself in the track, and 12 hours afterwards workmen were still trying to recover a body from beneath the wreckage. The men killed were:—Herbert McMurtrie, 52, driver of the goods train; George Bowler, 43, driver of the parcels train; and George Gal ton, 38, Bowler's fireman. Walter Branston (McMurtrie's fireman) and the guards, Arthur Matthews and Thomas Harrison, were slightly injured. McMurtrie's train was carrying zinc concentrates from Mount Isa to'Townsville, and the other was an empty light van and engine going to Richmond for parcels, when they collided on the single track —they normally pass on a loop—Branston either jumped or was hurled from his cabin, for otherwise he could not have avoided having been crushed to death. Telescoping each other, both engines partly raised their boilers in the air, then crashed sideways, one partly on top of the other. The two drivers and Galton had no chance of escape and their bodies were shockingly injured. Guard Matthews was hurled from one end of his van to the other. For a while he lay stunned, then, shocked and bleeding, crawled out and went to help Branston and Harrison in their efforts to extricate the dead. Guard Harrison walked while injured five miles to an unattended platform to get help. Using a portable telephone over the 68 miles to ■Hughenden, Harrison surprised the night officer there with the words: "The light train and the Mount Isa train have crashed. Send help quickly. Some have been killed, and the trains have been smashed to pieces." ' A breakdown gang and a doctor were hurried away. Meanwhile, Branston and Matthews had worked frantically but without success amidst escaping steam to extricate the dead men. They were on the point of collapse when the breakdown gang arrived. When the first relief party reached the scene of the collision they were confronted by a mass of tangled wreckage. Bowler had been caught at the brake. The force of the impact had caused the tender of his engine to telescope the back of the locomotive. Only, a hand protruding from the wreckage indicated his position. The goods van of the light train was lifted bodily from its undercarriage, and fell on the side of the line. A sheep truck was wrecked, and the mangled bodies of the sheep were under the train. Four train jumpers were travelling in a truck close to the engine of the goods train. Because they were getting too much coal dust in their eyes, they moved further back. Every wagon in front of them was smashed to pieces. A carriage in which six passengers from Mount Isa were travelling was not damaged.