TRAIN IN TUNNEL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 494, 1 July 1932, Page 7

TRAIN IN TUNNEL.

Held Up for Over an Hour. LOCOMOTIVE BREAKS DOWN. As a result of the electric locomotive breaking down, about 400 passengers on the workmen’s train from Lyttelton to Christchurch were held up in the tunnel from 7.22 until 8.40 this morning. The whole service on the line was disorganised for several hours. The train left Port at 7.20 a.m., and was about half-way through the tunnel when one of the locomotive’s driving wheels seized. The crew of the train had to put up with a lot of goodnatured banter. Soneone wanted to know if it was the Shanghai express. After a consultation with the driver the guard walked back to Lyttelton and returned with a small shunting engine, which proceeded to haul the train back to Lyttelton. Exerting her full tractive power, the steam locomotive was only able to haul the train at a very slow speed, and the eastern end of the tunnel was filled with smoke. A second locomotive was attached at the tunnel mouth, and the train arrived back at the Lyttelton station at 8.55.

The watersiders’ train, which was due at Lyttelton at 7.45, did not arrive until 8.55. The 8.20 train from Lyttelton was cut out, and its passengers were accommodated on the workmen’s train, to which extra carriages had been attached. There were no trains to connect with the' train when it arrived at Christchurch at 9.11. Shopkeepers .and others were surprised to see an army of people walking up Manchester Street to the city.

There was slight disorganisation for the greater part of the morning; trains ran ' about fifteen minutes behind schedule time.