MAIN TRUNK SMASH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19986, 19 December 1934, Page 8

MAIN TRUNK SMASH

GOOD WORK BY BREAKDOWN GANG By Telegraph—Press Association STRATFORD, December 18. By 10 o’clock last night the Stratford Main Trunk Line was cleared and the New Plymouth-Auckland express passed only an hour late. The task of clearing the wreckage of 11 trucks was completed five hours after the arrival of the breakdown outfit from Wanganui. The engine of the train to Stratford was badly damaged, the kingpin being broken, and it was necessary to dissemble it to enable the line to be cleared. The engine on the train from Strafford escaped structural damage and was hauled back to Pohokura siding, a distance of three miles. Bright moonlight assisted the work of the breakdown gang. Without this advantage the task of the men would have been difficult as the collison occurred on a portion of a track where there are high, steep hills on either side. Several of the trucks were a total loss and were broken up to effect a clearing. Railway officers here say that there was no defect in the system of control. It is understood that the guard of the train from Stratford was still in the telephone box communicating with the next station, Whangamoona, when his train left the station, the driver apparently mistaking the guard’s signal. A Departmental inquiry will be held.