THE SEACLIFF RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2527, 20 August 1902, Page 4

THE SEACLIFF RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

(Fnou Ottb Own Corbespondbnt.)

WELLINGTON, August 13. Tho general manager for railways, reporting to the Minister in charge of the department, Gays: — "The circumstances attending the derailment of three waggons and two carriages of the 7.40 a.m. DunedinPalmcrston train when running between Seacliff and Pukcteraki on the 2nd July liavo formed the subject of a most exhaustive departmental inquiry, in the coin so of which it has been ascertained that the train left Seacliff on n me- table time and travelled at. tho ordinary speed for about a mile, and when on a defending grade of 1 in 74 the leading wheels of the third waggon trom the engine loft the laiLs on a transition curve of 7^ chains* radius, the trailing wheels of the same waggon going off at a point about four ohainu- further north. The derailment of this waggon was not observed by anyone on the train, and t.fter running tome distance it caused two covered goods wtfggons immediately following it to leave the rails, and they in turn dragged the two cars following them off the rails. The investigations mado and the evidence- obtained ehowr conclusively that the tyres and flanges ■of the derailed vehicles, as well as the track, were in gocd order, and that at the time of the derailment tho train was travelling 1 smoothly and at easy speed, and that there was an entire absence of jerking or other circumstances conneoted with, the working" of the train which might have been calculated to cause the derailment. Under suck circumitance3 tho board had to seek for other probable causes, and they found thafc thf- spring shoes of both the leading and tra:ling spiral springs of the waggon Jhafc first left the road were broken, portions of the flanges of ou© of the spring shoes- beingfound at a point adjacent to the place where the truck first left tho rails, another portion of the same shoe being found near where (lie waggon came to a stand and in the inside of tHe spring. The board therefore, after careful consideration, canro to» the conclusion that tho derailment resulted' fiom the fracture of the spring hhoes of tho fefl -ha ml trailing spring of truck L 4588, which caused that cud of the waggon todiop and allow the lending right-hand wheel to mount the ouicr rail of the enne, ronndi which tho irjin was travrlling at tho time. The finding of t'.-e heard i a concurred in by the afenpral manager of railways, tho h'-adh of the maintenance, locomotive, and lraft:i branches."

■The findirrgs rerarr^ing ths srcci»fei.ts a-fc Shapf Point on July 50 and r.bar Rawvors' Hay are i.vludpd in tho report, but thc£» jou ha' s ahcac'y publishcil.

Ai <iT not tbo Prophet Wratjgo uj- .co.T.r.p: at l.n i.A-% lie r.'ay untie ha weather bag 1 . And loo^e tl'.o storms and gak3. The ill rft"-:?ts. cf drencbrig ram We o;ily can r-n'lure. By driving out the cold 'tip plain mJssr "Wiih \N'ood&' Great P^prEEMKlt %12S2i

The tTuant officer stated in the Christchurch Magistrate's Court on Tuesday that us 1400 caeee had been brought into the court against parents who had neglected jfcheir duty, the knowledge of the act muet be

The Surveyor-general has informed the council of the New Zealand Institute that three surveyors and six assistant-surveyors have been selected for employment by the Imperial Government on tile Gold Coaet of jjfrlt Airio*.

52nd tear

I*sl 1 1902/