A RUNAWAY ENGINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3859, 28 February 1928, Page 35

A RUNAWAY ENGINE.

PLUNGE OVER STEEP BANK. CHP.ISTUHURCH, February 24. Ploughing its way down a 12ft bank and smashing through a barbed wire fence, a shunting engine attached to 25 truck loads of sheep from Addington overran one of the tracks at the eastern end )f the Middleton yards about 4.25 p.m. yes terday and buried its nose in the roadway. Both the driver and the fireman leaped clear before the engine took the bank after tearing away the Samson post at the eud of the line. The tender, which was fully loaded with coal, was forced hard up against the cabin of the locomotive and broke part of the hood. The cowcatcher was bent and the engine, which weighs between 30 and 40 urns, came to rest with a list to one side. The brakes were fully apolied. The wheels of the sheep truck immediately behind the tender was forced 3ft into tho ground beyond the end of the line. The stock was unloaded bv hand by an emergency gang, and the remaining trucks which were not derailed were shun.ed away. The railway officials are faced with a hard task in returning the engine to rhe track. It mav be necessary to run rails down the banks at an angle of about 45deg and draw the engine up the way it went over. No delay was caused in the other shunting operations in progress at the time jf the mishap.