DASTARDLY ACT

Taranaki Daily News, 16 February 1931, Page 7

DASTARDLY ACT

ATTEMPT TO WRECK TRAIN. HUNDRED PERSONS ON BOARD. An atempt was made early on the morning of January 31 at Katoomba, New South Wales, to wreck the Mudgee mail train, which reached Sydney at five o’clock. . ' , A locomotive pinch-bar, which is about three feet long, was placed across the rails near the points 500 yards west of the Katoomba station, and four signal lights were moved from their regular positions. Fortunately the train was not derailed. On the train were more than 100 passengers, most of whom were asleep. They were not told about the occurrence. G. Ottoway, the driver, said he felt the engine jolt as it passed over the spot about 2.20 a.m., and looking out saw sparks flying from near one of the front wheels. He also noticed that the lamps were out of position. He brought the train quickly to a standstill, and on examining the mndergear found the •pinch-bar jammed between the “lifeguard” and one of the front wheels. . The pinch-bar was not on the line 30 minutes before the mail came along, as a Sydney-bound goods train passed over the points just before two o clock, and went into a siding to allow the mail to pass. The bar, which belonged to the Katoomba depot, had been moved from the place where it was kept, and taken about 30 yards to the point where the wheels of the train struck it.

The point where the pinch-bar was placed on the line is near the home signal and several hundred yards from the signal box on Katoomba station. In the daytime it is in full view of the signalman. There was 'bright moonlight, but even had anyone been observed on the line little notice would have been taken by the station staff as train examiners and shunters occasionally have to pass' there at night to attend to goods trains. The fact the pinch-bar was placed on the line instead of several other bulkier and heavy obj’ects that were near by may have some significance. The bar was about two inches in diameter and small enough by half-an-inch to pass under the life-guard, which usually knocks an obstruction off the line, or prevents it- from going beneath the wheels of the locomotive.

Many attempts to wreck trains in New South Wales have failed because of the efficacy of the life-guard with which every engine that does not have a cowcatcher is equipped. It is thought that whoever selected the pinch-bar in an attempt' to wreck the train ’ may have known this,