ENGINES BREAK DOWN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 687, 12 June 1929, Page 10

ENGINES BREAK DOWN

EXPRESS DELAYED ARRIVES SEVEN HOURS LATE Press Association CHRISTCHURCH. Tuesdav The express due at Christchurch from the South at 7.1 S p.m. did not arrive until after midnight owing to a chapter of accidents. In the first place failure of the engine delayed the train for two hours at Hook, near Studliolme. Another engine was sent from Timaru, but it was too light for the heavy train and progress was slow. One report states that, but for the presence of mind of the driver, Mr. Tombs, the express would almost certainly have been derailed near Norwood. When travelling at over 40 miles an hour the big connecting-rods on the engine broke, and the train pulled up suddenly. It was found that, on the left-hand side of the engine, the broken rod, a piece of steel four inches thick, was bent double and hung outwards, while the one on the opposite side had broken off like a carrot. The remainder of this rod had ploughed up the permanent way ancl, but for a good depth of gravel, would undoubtedly, by striking the sleepers, have derailed the train. As it was, it struck one sleeper, reducing the end to matchwood. The driver applied the brakes in such a manner that only the passengers in the first carriages realised it was an emergency stop. A relief train brought the passengers, 70 in all, to Chirstchurch, arriving at two a.m., seven hours late. ' The ferry steamer Maori waited at Lyttelton for passengers ancl mails. Extra boilers were put into commission and the steamer is expected to make a fast passage to Wellington.