TRAIN IN MUD

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19659, 20 August 1935, Page 10

TRAIN IN MUD

ENGINE PLOUGHS INTO SLIP. GUARD’S VAN BOGGED. (By Telegraph.—press Association.) PALMERSTON N., Alonday. Drawn by a seventy ton engine a goods train proceeding down a steep winding gradient ran into a m jet -lip at 6.30 -a.m., a mile beyond Whakarongo on the Palmerston-Woodvilio line. The obstruction was not visible until the driver rounded the bend. He applied Ills brakes, but the dead weight of the train made it plough through the slip, which covered Hie line for fifteen yards to a depth in places of nearly two l’eet. Tlie soft mud yielded before tho train’s momentum. The engine pulled up beyond the slip, with the guard’s van stuck in the mud, one wheel being off tho line. The remainder of Hie train proceeded Lo Ashhurst. Another locomotive was dispatched from Palmerston North to pull out the van. The slip was cleared by J 0.30 a.m. All IralTle was restored after l-our hours’ inlcrruplion. instead of the 7 a.m. passenger train for Napier leaving Palmerston North, llie passengers were motored lo \Yoodvillc where a train for llawkc’s Bay was made up.