EXCITING RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12770, 16 April 1910, Page 4

EXCITING RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

[United' Pbess Association.] Palmerston North, April 15. The 3.30 p.m. train from Woodville had a very narrow escape from derailment in the Manawatu Gorge jesterday. Just as the train emerged from the second tunnel from Ashhurst, the driver became aware of a large body travelling down the hillside at a tremendous speed.He immediately applied the brakes, but this did not stop the train in time,- and it crashed into a huge tree trunk, 15 feet long and sft in diameter, just as it landed on the line. • The permanent way was badly torn up, and the front of the engine was damaged. A gang of permanent way men from the Gorge dislodged the tree, and repaired the line, enabling the train to continue its journey. The engine was so severely battered that it had to bo, replaced by another engine at Ashhurst. It was extremely fortunate that no worse disaster befell, as had the tree struck the engine broadside on, it was possible that the whole of the train might have been hurled into the river below.