CLEARING THE LINE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16174, 10 July 1923, Page 3

CLEARING THE LINE.

RESUMPTION OF TRAFFIC. ANOTHER DANGEROUS FACE. WATCHED DAY AND NIGHT. (Per Press Association.) TAUMARIJNUI, last, night. A huge crane, from Auckland, did wonderful work in clearing the line of debris, engine, and broken carriages. Work continued in shifts all Saturday and Sunday, and the last shovelful of ballast was spread on the new portion of the lino about 5.30 p.m. on Sunday, the firs,t train to pass through being a “goods” from Taumarunui at 6 p.m. On Sunday the scene of the disaster was visited by numbers of settlers and residents of Ongarue, and the clearing operations were watched with interest. The damaged engine and partly damaged car D were drawn up to the Ongarue railway station, and the debris, was burned in iieaps on the bank. Among tho debris could be seen the broken iron frames of the wrecked second class carriages. These are so badly broken that one could readily imagine the force of the impact, and the reason for so many mangled bodies among the victims.. On the side of the track were also seen a gas cylinder intact, and another which had been either smashed or exploded. Further along was the cowcatcher of the derailed engine. It was severely twisted and bent, up, evidence of the rough handling it had received in the collision with the three-ton boulder. The hillside from which the boulder and other material fell shows a fail- gap, such as is scon in hillside slips. It is not a dangerous looking overhanging cliff, hut an ordinary looking hillside on a grade, and overgrown with fern and scrub. There aro far more dangerous looking spots on the main trunk line than this, but local expei’ts Sjay it is nevertheless a bad spot. In fact sonio consider that the whole of the face of this bend is on the slido towards the river, and that at some time in the past there has been a huge slip there, which narrowed the river into a small fast-running torrent, such as it is just below Ongarue township. The railway officers are excedeingly grateful for the fine spirit shown by the men of the Public Works Department. Immediately the accident was notified to them at Okohukuru, Mr A. C. Pascand, assistant engineer, and Mr 8. Holmes, foreman, discontinued the day’s work .on the Matiere section of the railway and jumped into the emergency, organising all hands, and placed them at the disposal of the Railway Department. This band of willing workers set off at once for the scene of "the accident, and under the able leadership of Mr Holmes did splendid work until relieved by the railway workers. Mr Keller, resident engineer, did not hear of the catastrophe till 8 a.m., and was more than grateful to hear his men at Okoliukura- responded to duty’s call without waiting for orders. It was one of these ocasions which called for prompt action and initiative without appealing for formal instructions, and officers and men. are to be commended for their foresight. The Te Kniti portion of the. line between PuketutU ■ and Te Kuiti, which has been causing the Railway Department a good deal of anxiety of late, was inspected yesterday, and revealed the fact that the Department had good reason for its anxiety for the safety of passengers traversing this route. Above the line there is a sloping .bank, and below a i’airlv steep drop of two or three hundred feet. A slip started a week ago below the line, and is now 48 feet wide. A fence below the rails hangs in mid-air. The line is being watched day and night. After the passing of tli© train the line subsides and it is then lifted bodily with jacks and metal poured under tho rail. Twenty-eight truck loads of metal have been placed under the rails in this manrcr under tile 16-yard stretch in the last few days, but the yielding earth seems to swallow it almost as fast as it can be put in. A goods train that went over this portion last week had seven waggons derailed as the result of a. jolt after passing the sunken rails. A quarry gang was requisitioned, and the waggons were back on the line in a few hours, not much damage resulting. The slipping land immediately below the rails is rail of cracks and fissures and may give way any moment. It is thought to bo safe enough in fine weather, but at presnt looks dangerous. The landslip ia said to be caused by recent continuous rains. Sunday and to-day are fine. The rainy season appears to be over. )n the 61 days in May and June rain fell on 55 davs, a total fall of 15.47 inches. CHRISTCHURCH, last night.

Police Constable Grant, ono of the vietoms of tho railway disaster, was associated with Police Inspector Cassels, of Christchurch, in the work of arresting Rua, the Maori prophet, in tho wilds of the Urewera country some years ago. Inspector Cassels says that Constable Grant was a Maori linguist above the average in ability, and had considerable mana among the* Maoris of tho Urewera.

A PASSENGER’S STORY. GRAPHIC NARRATIVE. THE RESCUE WORK. (Special to the Herald.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Air. A. M. Cioucher, a Christchurch resident who was in the Ongaruo disaster, told on interviewer that he was the only passenger in Uie front compartment of car I) who was fully awake at the time of the smash, and he was fortunate in possessing an electric torch, which he used with excellent effect in extricating the injured. “My first thought,” lie said, “was that the slip had caught our carriage only and had put it oft' the line, and that the rest, of the train was all right. By this tlimo all the lights were out, and the other, passengers were groping about in the darkness. The car had settled down on its side, but not a great deal, ns it was possible to walk along the floor. There were two ladies at the other end of the carriage from me, and ono cried out, ‘Oh, where is my child?’ I replied, ‘ft’s all right., madam; we'll soon find your child.’ and I then produced my torch. There was then a clamor to open the doors, but we found that the doorM and windows were jammed and could not be opened. Some one called out), ‘Break tho windows,’ but, I warned them not to break tiny on* the slip side, ns the slip was still coming down on us. A young man broke ono of the! windows on tho other side, and managed to get out, and he succeeded in kicking the door to tho platform in. Meanwhile I called to the passengers in the other compartment to kick the door in, hut received no response. While tliis was going on the carriage was lighted up by tho gas container breaking into flames, and the cry went up that! the carriage was on- fire, one woman screaming out, “I’m burning!’ In a few minuted the flames died down, and I judged that the slip had put them out, because of a smell of escaping gas. My torch was used for lighting up tho carriage, and everybody got out of our compartment, the ladies going first.

“When they find all gone F rushed hack to try ami force open the door leading into the next compartment, in order to see liow the occupants had got. on, and to help them if necessary. 1 managed to open the door only about a foot, and w.hdn T turned the light front my torch into the inside of the. carriage a ghastly sight, met my eves, a sight so terrible that 1 hope I will never see anything like it again, as long as T live. "The people were all packed up at one end of the compartment., and broken timber and iron was mixed up with broken limbs. Then I saw that the front of car G had telescoped into the rear of car D ( , and the occupants of the two compartment,«.j had suffered terribly. Car C had been forced ricjit into Car D, making the two look like one big car. I called out 1 Can I help anybody? Cu,rt anybody get ouit? If so come this way.’ Someone called back, ‘No; we're all jammed in!’ Then a woman’s voice called out, ‘Take this child !’ I managed to squeeze my way inside tho door, and got hold of the child, who wo a about seven or eight years of age, and after lifting him over the heads of tho others, got him into

the next compartment. I said to him, > ‘Now sit still j mummy will soon come,’ j not knowing at the time that tho poor j little follow had both legs broken. I j returned to tho compartment again, and tried to extricate sonio of the others, but they were all jammed together, and someone advised me l<> go outside, and see what I could do from there. There was a space of a few inches between the walls of the telescoped carriages, and one woman liad her arm stretched out of one of the windows. She could not move it, because of it. being jammed so tight, and when I tided to break away the wall that was on the outside she called out that it was hurting her terribly. I found that I could not move the wall, and I thought that if I onlyhad an axe what I help it would be. Later I learnt that the guard bad an axe, saw, and crowbar in a van, which enabled the wall to be broken in. By this time many others had arrived, on the scene, and all were anxious to help, but everybody was talking at once. The guard then came along from the van, and seemed greatly surprised to learn that an accident had taken place. He came up to inquire what was delaying tho train, and did not- even bring his lamp with him. There was a slight delay in the arrival of a relief train, and it is worth mentioning to show what a wonderful) safeguard against collisions the tablet system is. The express train on which we were travelling had picked up the tablet at Ongarue station, and the relief train) from Taumarunui could not leave until the tablet was returned to Ongarue. Consequently a railwayman had to run back to Ongarue as fast as ho could witih the. tablet. Some oi the uninjured passengers seemed to think it was a ridiculous piece of business, but to my mind it shows how valuable the tabiet system is.”