EXPRESSES DELAYED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 201, 28 August 1935, Page 8

EXPRESSES DELAYED

Landslide on Main Trutik GANGERS’ NARROW ESCAPE PARTLY BURIED IN FALL LINE CLEAR AGAIN ( Per Press Asaociatlon ] AUCKLAND, Aug. 27. Serious delays to the Main Trunk railway services were ’.a used by a land slide betwen Ongarue and To Koura early this morning. The ordinary and Limited expresses from Wellington, and the express from New Plymouth were held up south of the slip and passengers, mails and goods wore transferred to emergency trains. These reached Auckland this afternoon. The line xvas cleared about 3 p.m. The situation was well handled by the Railway Department, and six vans of goods and about 700 passengers were transhipped over the landslide without incident. The ordinary express left for Wellington at 3. o’clock this afternon and the Limited at 7 o ’clock. Nine men were working at the spot and had just cleared minor slips. They were about to signal the line clear for the Limited express from Auckland when the hillside fell suddenly like an avalanche. Most of the men saw the slip coming and escaped. One man was thrown against a fence, and Gangers J. Casuey, of Te Koura, and W. J. Wil liams, of Ongarue, were swept down the bank. Casuey was buried to the neck, and Williams partly buried. Casuey was sent to hospital suffering from bruises and shock, and Williams was recovered uninjured. A number of shovels wore buried, but spares were found for the men to extricate their two mates. The men worked hard to-day and had the line cleared by 3 o’clock this afternoon. The line was not damaged. The slip occurred through a seepage of water through the pumice bank. Seven hundred passengers from the expresses were transferred in the night. A bonfire was lighted near the slip. . The former Ongarue disaster happened one mile further north on the other side of the river.