WRECK ESCAPED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19135, 2 October 1936, Page 13

WRECK ESCAPED

ENGINE OFF. RAILS EXPRESS IN OTAGO PARTING OF COUPLINGS SWIFT ACTION OF BRAKES (Per Press Association.) DUNE-DIN, this day. A temporary deviation of the. broken main railway line at Evansdale was completed at 11 o'clock last night, and the normal services were resumed this morning. The escape of the passengers and crew in tlie derailment of the express tram was almost as miraculous as in the recent Main Trunk mishap. The first carriage, a second class smoker, was packed with passengers, including six women, and had it telescoped heavy casualties would have been inevitable. The express was running down a long incline from Warrington at 25 miles an hour when tho driver heard a rattle of loose ballast and lightly applied the brakes. Then the train crossed a plank bridge over the Evansdale Creek, and though the bogey wheels were off tho rails the noise ceased. Had there been sleepers on tho bridge, the train would probably have toppled into the creek. Jn a'clay cutting near the Evansdale station tho derailed bogeys struck tlie points, causing the engine to leave the line. It ploughed its way along tho clay for 60 yards, cutting a trench 9ft. wide and 3ft. deep, before capsizing against the. bank". When the engine toppled the couplings broke, and this caused tho full application of tlie Westinghouso brakes, bringing the train to a standstill with a jar. COACH REMAINS UPRIGHT

Tho front wheels of tho leading carriage. left tho line, but tlie coach remained upright. None of the passengers experienced more than a jolt. Tho driver, Mr. H. Stile, and the fireman, Mr. E. Ward, and a road foreman, Mr. W. J. Connelly, who were in the cab of tlie engine, were flung violently across tho cab, but .sustained no injury. There "were 125 passengers on the train. They were brought to Dunedin by fivo railway buses, which left tho scene of the mishap within an hour of the occurrence.

Ono of tho vans sent, to bring tlie mails from the derailed express capsized down a bank on the. road over Mount Cargill. Mr." William Whinny, the superintendent of tho mails branch, received concussion and abrasions, and Mr. Robert McDonnell had a leg broken. Both were sent to hospital.