FURTHER DETAILS OF TRAIN SMASH GIVE DAMAGE DONE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18011, 23 November 1926, Page 15

FURTHER DETAILS OF TRAIN SMASH GIVE DAMAGE DONE.

DRIVER AND FIREMAN / GOT CLEAR IN TIME. Per PreSs Association. AUCKLAND, November 22. As the Rotorua express from Auckland, in which her Excellency’ Lady’ Alice Fergusson was a passenger, was pulling out of'Ngaruawahia Station- today, the engine collided with the engine of the Glenmassey train, which was standing at the Frankton end of the station. The cAb of the Glenmassey engine was driven against the end of the boiler and the engine derailed. The cause of the accident was insufficient clearance. The engine of the express had an axle-box broken, the coverings stripped off and various parts and the cab window broken. The axle-boxes were also stripped off the tender. The fireman of the express got his hands cut by broken glass. The engine of the Glenmassey’ train scraped along the carriages of the express until the engine was pulled up and the train stopped, when the engine was locked to a carriage by the projecting roof. The passengers were considerably alarmed and crowded out of the carriages. The railway staff at once got to work to shift the trucks of coal attached to the Glenmassey engine and to jack the latter back on to the rails. Luckily the driver and fireman of the Glenmassey engine got clear in time. All the windows of the carriages behind the express were broken and the headings round them ripped awav. Several windows were also broken in other carriages, the headings torn off and roofs broken at the edge. The express engine was too badly damaged to proceed under its own power. The engine was in charge of Driver Riddick and Fireman Holmes. Though the Glenmassey engine’s cab was smashe.d and some of the engine controls destroyed, the main bogey of the engine was apparently undamaged.