TUNNEL TROUBLE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20282, 17 April 1934, Page 9

TUNNEL TROUBLE.

Breakdown in Electric Train Service.

Through a breakdown in the power service on the Christchurch-Lyttelton branch line at 9.15 a.m. to-day. the running of the electric trains was disorganised and steam engines were brought into commission to maintain the service. Electric power was again available at 1.20 p.m. when the electric locomotives resumed running. The cause of the breakdown has not yet been traced. Electricians were conducting a search for the fault when the power circuit automatically restored itself. The fault developed after the 8.50 a.m. train from Christchurch had emerged from the tunnel mouth at Lyttelton, but the train had sufficient momentum to enable it to coast into the station at Lyttelton. There was a delay of 20 minutes while a steam locomotive was brought into commission to haul the train back to Christchurch on the return trip. Normally the train would have left Lyttelton at 9.23 a.m., but it did not move out of the station until 9.43 a.m. Passengers by this train were put to some inconvenience through being late for engagements in the city, but other trains were not affected, the steam locomotives maintaining the remainder of the timetable. Search For Fault. Electricians were quickly at work in an effort to discover the defect, and in a short time had localised it as being between Heathcote and Lyttelton, but the actual cause of the fault has not been detected. The electric service on the port line was put into operation on February 14, 1929. Since then a number of breakdowns hdve occurred, but the fault which developed to-day was more serious than any of its predecessors. The use of steam engines will undo the work that was done a short time ago, when the tunnel roof was cleaned of soot and dust in order to remove the nuisance caused to passengers through grime being brought down by vibration and being carried into the carriages.