UNLOCKED POINTS

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18063, 8 March 1923, Page 7

UNLOCKED POINTS

NARROW ESCAPE OF EXPRESS. ENGINE DERAILED. _i - ' . I THREE WAGGONS TELESCOPED. PRESS ASSOCIATION. CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday. Tho express which left Arthur’s Pass at 2.20 p.m. yesterday, carrying over 50 passengers from the AVest Coast to Christchurch, was derailed near the Cora, Lynn Station at 2.45 p.m. The engine, tender, three “L” waggons; and two carriages were damaged. There were no casualties, but tho driver and fireman escaped injury l>y a miracle. ' The accident appears to have been due to an unlocked set of points 200 or 300 yards on the Ai-thur’s Pass side of Cora Lynn. Tho train was proceeding at a low speed through'the cutting, and was slowing up for the station. There was a loopline at the spot, and tho points connecting this with the main line caused trouble. Tho engine struck the half closed points, and loft the rails. The AVestinghouse brake was immediately applied by the driver, whose promptitude probably averted serious loss of life. The train came to si stop after- travelling 30 or 40 yards.

The permanent way uns ploughed up to a. depth of some feet, the wheels of the tender being almost buried. The engine stopped in a precarious position, hanging over a small’ gully at the side of the line at an angle of 45 baulks of timber to stay it up. The engine ploughed its way completely across the trafck, and blocked the loop as' well as the main line. Three “L” waggons, next to the tender, werecompletely telescoped, portions being smashed to matchwood, and the ironwork bent or broken. The upper part of one waggon was torn off the bogey, and Hung into the gully. The lines were twisted and broken as if made of wire. The presence of the waggons next to the 'engine and tender saved the first-class smoker, next to them, from destruction.

If the train had ’aeon travelling at greater speed the “smoker” would also have been telescoped, as it had already left its level position when the train stopped. The next carriage a “birdcage,” was partly derailed, the front wheel being off the line. The. rest of the train escaped damage. Passengers in the rear of t-lio train did not feel the effects of tlio accident very severely, as the carriages kept to the’ rails, hut the occupants of the smoker had a nerve-racking experience.

A relief train arrived shortly before 8 p.m. and the journey to Christchurch was resumed at 8.15 p.m., the train arriving /in Christchurch 0.15 a.m. Passencroris for the North Island wore considerably inconvenienced through missing connection with 'the ferry steamer.