A CHAOS OF WRECKAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17038, 11 May 1923, Page 1

A CHAOS OF WRECKAGE.

WORST BREAK AT BROKEN RIVER.

DEVASTATION ON MIDLAND LINE.

Though the slip which has occurred at Otarama, on the Midland Railway, is the most extensive, It is by no means the most serious Interruption to the line, nor the one most difficult to remedy. A washout that has taken place near Broken River, at the mouth of the No. D tunnel, has wrought far greater havoc and presents infinitely greater difficulties to the repair gangs. It is this washout that will occupy most time ini the making good.

ENDLESS surs. l

GAP BETWEEN TWO . TUNNELS. A BRIDGE NECESSARY. Over many miles on the Midland line, the track is broken or blocked by Blips, washouts, breakages and interruptions of various descriptions. At practically eiery yard there is evidence of the tremendous force or the onslaught l made by flood waters on the permanent ‘ \vay. The mere submergence of the line under masses of ulluvml wreckage is too common a feature to be reckoned in the computation of the things that. matter in causmg the blockage of the line. For miles and miles there is practically a chaotic miscellany of wreckage of various kinds—of the embankments, and hillsides, the ballasting and the track sides, some great, many small, but all threatening the security of the line and many involvmg the track itself in the general catastrophe that seems to have fallen on the whole countryside. AN UGLY OHASM. The damage to the line that mat‘ ters is contained in about five miles that lie between Otamma and Broken River. Commencing at O'turama. the agencies of destruction have presented an impressive prelude by the touring away of about 150 feet of the hillside, leaving a chasm that is sufficiently in.pressive in its ugliness to cause .1 shudder. The climax is near Broken River, and it is a fitting climax to so impressive a beginning: Here the water has chosen its ground so effectively that'filling will be- ass-hopeless as a, deviation is unthinkable. Tunnel mouths, a few chains apart, look out on an awesome gap that opens almost at one’s feet and ni-esents a precipitous drop to the muddled waters of the Broken River infinite distances below. Above, the mountain sides rear their ‘ scarred, disfigured sides to remote ‘heights. The whole spectacle is that. of an awful but cunningly laid snare challenging the ingenuity of the repair gangs. And between these two imBressive breaks there are smaller pin Lures in keeping. Away beyond Bro—ken River, there are, of course, other impediments to traffic, but they are minor things. The real damage to the line is between Otarama and Bro—ken River, and the Worst damage is at the mouth of the No. 9 tunnel. INTO THE SNOW COUNTRY. The ordinary passenger train from Christchurch yesterday had Springfield~ for its terminus. and that will be the terminus for some weeks to come. Just. ready to leave the station was a Work train, bound for the farthest accessible point on the line—the great gap at .Otarama. The tiny van which offered the sole passenger accommodation contained a strange collection of people, among whom there predominated the men whose business it is to rebuild what Nature has torn down. Two trucks that were also hitched to the engine carried a miscellaneous assert» merit of implements, niatei'ial and hand trolleys, among which were supplies for the men along the line_and the baggage of men whose busmess demanded that they should penetrate as far «as train, trolley and foot could take them. REGION OF SUNSHINE. The weather was fine. and the sun shone generously from a sky that had few clouds. Christchurch people hull left the ruin miles behind them, and faced the dazzling whiteness of the snow—covered mountains with expectancy and pleasure. The smell of the snow was in the air and gave added charm to a wealth of sunshine that had become almost a. memory, 319:} going into remote regions along the, wreck strewn line talked of ways ai‘rl meax:s—»whicli were mainly interpreted in trolleys and feet and the respective capabilities of those unpretentious methods of locomotion. In a corner. a few men swore obscenely and unrcniittingly. but without heat or tur—moil, :it the things that suearilugr couldn’t mend. Outside an official who had been there before. took out a little hook and recited to another, item by item. the things that had happened along: the line. It sounded like the repetition of a catalogue, l'l‘he little i-m’ rattled and swayed along at tho and of the short train‘ gaining the higher lands that afforded so striking a contrast to the orderly‘scene which the already drying lower levels presented THE O’I‘ARAMA SLIP.

Every yard covered took one to sunnier, brighter weather. The air was crystal clear, and the sunshine sent back the vivid whiteness of the snow-covered mountains that, only here and there, showed a small, misty cloud, to shroud the hard, dead whiteness of their snowy mantles. It might have been a day in mid-sum-mer. The Otarama slip opened unexpectedly, without any introductory signs of serious wreckage to act as a preparation. The work of making the deviation had already progressed far and the preparations for the laying of the new track will not occupy long. The hill at this point is fairly steep, becoming progressively steeper as it rises, but it does not present

a very difficult grade at the level or the slip. Just above the wash—out tliere were, until the repair gangs started operations, the traces or an old road. This road (lid good service in the old days when the railway was. being constructed. in the course ol its long years of disuse it had become overgrown with graSs and tussouk, and its outline had been almost obiiter ated here and there by the collapse 0‘ its banks. But still it presented ‘1 workable pathway, needing only widening, levelling and general repair work to make it capable of serving the pur poses of an emergency. By last even~ ing the approaches to this old road had been cut. and it was being levelled. and put in order. .lt forms a complete pathway round the wrecked portion of the line. and will give the trains El safe way through. though passengers} will undoubtedly experience a thrill at 1 the spectacle of the gap in the hillside 1 and the dizzy drops that mark the path of the wreckage to the waters of the VVaimakariri. A PECULIAR VVASHOUT. The Otarama washout is peculiar in this respect, that it does not present A direct breakaway of the earth iron) a definite point. A great cavernous hale that opens beside the track runs level with it for some little distance, the land on the lower side still remaining intact. Then, turning at about right angles. it breaks down and out through the hillside. At the paint of this break away the slip bites deeper into the hill, going right beyond the other side of the track. The indications are that the water, having found‘ an entrancein volume beside the track, rapidly brought the ground in the immediate vicinity to a semisolid state” The accumulation of weight and the deer struction of the solidity of the hillside continued till a weakness on tlic lower side presented a gap that was imme—diately converted into a monstrous sluioeway. From the bottom of this crater the sides rise almost perpendicularly, and give promise oi further collapses. ‘ HAVOC IN THE HILLS. ‘ From the point of this slip the cmdeuce of the abnormal iorcc ut the) water, and of the huge volume that must have dashed down the mountain sidesLis everywhere apparent. but in most cases the line itself has lortuuately been treated to nothing, more serious than deposits of alluvizl wreck age. which. though they COHS’ILILULJ blockages. are easy of removal. The slips are almost countless. every lull~ side being torn with furrows and firm like scars of greater or lesser )nagnp tude. Everywhere there is water, splashing down rocky declivities from eerie heights in broken. foaming. sparkling cascades, winding in small streams down new-made and temper ary courses and issuing in great jets 2n. the faces of cliffs and cuttings irum some hidden and plentiful reservoirs within. \Valking along the track yrs one moment easy and the next pre-carious-7a maze of waterlioles and silt hidden snares. Here and there small quantities of the ballast have been swept away. and at other points, where the ballast has held. the water has cleposited thick layers over ballast. rails and evervthing. And always there are the small slips. waiting for the clcar‘ ing shovels of the repair men. THROUGH THE TUNNELS. The tunnels in this region are uum~ erous. and to go through them on foot is a. proceeding fraught with unknown chances. One or two are practically dry. save where the water hurries along at the sides. in others the passage is a. veritable shower bath. with an oozey quay; Lind-er foot. Streams of water, as from a hose, shoot with considerable force from small holes in the sides, while. at other places, the interstices between the bricks give forth volumes of water that fall like curtains. Amid such an assault of water one fails to note thc dripping that is everywhere. Progress under such conditions is not speedy. but there is no oppcrt-unity for ennui. The disconil’orts of the track and the ex~ citement of taking one’s chance in the tunnels apart. the wreckage of the hillsides commands uufla‘gging at—tention. just as the wild grandeur of some ol‘ the finest scenery in the I)om—iuion gets the full appreciatimnwhich slow travel amid it permits. There are many cases where great slips and. subsidences, at points on the hillsides that. are not particularly steep, have occurred for reasons that it is difl‘icult to assign in detail, “'hole acres of hillside give one the impression of having become rotten. and to have gagged in a. half fluid and utterly izrstable mass. They speak eloquently of the presence of large volumes of “alter moving uuderueali. A BLOCKED TI'NNEL. At Staircase, men were workingr iu the station yard on the construct-ion work that is in progress there. This favoured spot- sui'l'ereil no damage iron) floods. Almost surrounded by great peaks down which the snow spread almost to the level, it looked up to a. sky that showed no cloud anywhere. ‘lt‘ seemed a. little elysmm guarded by the mountains from the wreckage on either side. Just be—yond, however, the earlier scenes were repeated, and as the track wound round the sides of the mountains and.pierced tunnel after tunnel, it was the same story of washouts, slips and glutinous deposits of mud and shingle. Tunnel No. 6. its farther end issuing into a shed-like structure of meat beams and tree trunks. recalled the slip that, in

1918, blocked the traffic at this point. The structure stood the test of the attacks of the last few days, and spoil washed from the hills above was shot over the precipice without the line being damaged. The end of tunnel No. 8 presented a. different spectacle. Save for a small opening high up at the top of the arch, just large enough for a man to crawl through, it was en—tirely blocked. Outside, a. hill of loose shingle, as high as the top of the tun—nel, made a very substantial blockage on the track. From the steep hillside above thousands of tons of spoil had come down, leaving a small gully to mark where it had been. It spread right over the track, spilled down the other side and sprawled into the tun 1181 for about twenty yards. From the point of View of the actual weight of material to be moved, it presents a ‘quite serious obstacle, but it is one that is easily dealt with, and which calls for the use of shovels alone. THE “’O'RST SLIP. The end of tunnel No. 9 is the scene of the most serious slip. A brief dis tance separates this tunnel from the next one. Above, the mountain side rears a precipitous slope that goes away up to the regions of the snows Below there is an abrupt and awesome drop to the level of the river bed. The spot is :i cairn that seems to be mid way between earth and sky and a long way from bot-h. Out of the, mountain side the watcrslmre cut a wc-dgerliko gap that has bitten deeply. For n space of 1155 feet the permanent wu): has disappeared, and an ugly gulf cuts. oif one tunnel firemv‘fli‘fi‘dth‘er. Over it, line a suspension bridge, hangs the railway line. every sleeper still in place. The only passable crossing is by this novel suspension bridge. it in an eerie business The hanging; wrenlmgo of the line vibrates at earl: step. and at the middle, one prays for sun: feet as the great swing sways. One stands over the centre of :1 great gulf, and boulders are visible for down between the sleepers This cavern Hills away almost sheer to where the ‘Broken River, its muddy waters boilw ing in their rush, looks a thing in—finitely far off. There is desolation above and below. and death in om:misplaced step. To the railway repair man. the crossing of :1 terrifying bridge of that kind is part of the day’s work. ;It is the only way of crossing, and :as he must cross, he takes it, his feet ldisplacing the shingle that still clings ‘to the sleepers, and sending it rattling ‘into the abyss beneath. l It is the mending of this break that IWill lengthen the restoration of rail“ iway communication with the Coast. lDeviation is utterly impossible. and lfilling the gap is equally beyond the lscheme of practimil things. A bridge iwill have to be built, and, before it can be started. the rest of the line ‘must be in a state to permit of the ltrnnsport of the necessary material. ‘The finding of sure emplacements {or i piles may prove difficult in such a mass lot shaken wreckage. To the layman it looks a most arduous task. Stone-r----iare moving continuously. filling tlu: l air with a rattle that seems to respond .tu the distant drone of the waters fur ‘rlown. The sound scarcely (eases: ‘ sinking to minute proportions as small pebbles dart down singly; only to swell ‘agaxin as milling stones gather com‘pauinns and bring miniature landslides. ‘or its larger boulders break from the loosened muss and make a noisy flight. ‘A start with the bridge here will he made at the earliest possible moment; and supplies, where they are available, will be drawn from such portions of th»: lim» as are not r-ut all: from this sec~ tion. in a moving train this spot is little more than a flush of daylight be. twomi two tunnels, but passengers who are observant. during that instant will see ,1 spectacle that will make them welcome tlm blackness that. when the next tunnel is reached, tells them they are safely across.