MAIN TRUNK SUP

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19665, 27 August 1935, Page 6

MAIN TRUNK SUP

SERVICES DISORGANISED. TRANS-SHIPMENT OF PASSENGERS EXPRESSES FIVE HOURS LATE. A SURFACEMAN INJURED. An extensive slip on the permanent way two miles south of Ongarue last night has meant the oomplete dislocation of Main Trunk passenger and goods services. North-bound expresses after a trans-shipment of passengers over the subsldenoe arrived In Frankton more than five hours late and there Is a possibility that the line will remain blooked when the south-bound expresses leave this evening.

A gang of 12 men was employed continually on the section yesterday, repeated slips and subsidences in the loose pumice strata causing considerable concern. At 7.45 p.m. the passage of a train brought down further soil on to the line while later in the evening the engine of another train was forced to plough its way through a thick layer of heavy pumice gravel. At 1 a.m., after the first down express had passed there was a further and much heavier susidenee and for 30 yards the track was completely obliterated by a small landslide.

Steps were immediately taken to augment the men employed on the section and by mid-night a large number of surfacemen and gangers was concentrated on the slip. The men worked under hazards. At all times there was the risk of further falls of earth and on one occasion a surfaceman, James Gascoigne, was caught in a mass of falling earth and partially buried. He suffered internal injuries and after receiving medical attention was removed to the Taumarunui Public Hospital. Another ganger named Williams was also buried, but he escaped injury. The slip has meant a delay of about five hours on the normal Main Trunk timetable. The first Auckland-bound express did not arrive in Frankton this morning until 10.30, while the limited did not leave for Auckland until after 1.30. It was necessary for passengers and baggage to trans-ship from one train to the other over the slip and it Is .possible that the same procedure may have to be followed by those travelling south on the expresses this evening.

SIX HOURS LATE. LIMITED EXPRESS ARRIVES, PASSENGER’S STORY.

Just six hours late, the north-bound limited express, composed of five carriages of the old type and a locomotive of a type which in recent years has been almost unknown on the Main Trunk passenger services, drew Into the Frankton Junction station shortly before 1.30 this afternoon. “ The whole hillside seemed to have slipped away,” commented one passenger to a Waikato Times reporter who met the train. “ The debris covered the line for about a chain and maintained a uniform height of about 10 feet. After being delayed for about three hours at Taumarunui we were glad to get the exercise of walking over the slip to the train on the oilier side, but it was not until a fairly late hour this morning that all the passengers and baggage were transhipped and the train was able to get under way.”

.Many passengers bore visible traces of the incident in the form of mudbespattcred shoes, but according to the majority the pumice was dry and no great inconvenience had been caused apart from the delay, in order that intending passengers could connect with the Rotorua' line, the Rotorua express,was held at Frankton until the arrival of the limited. Other connections were also arranged.

LITIGANT ON TRAIN. DIVORCE CASE DELAYED. When an undefended divorce case. Ecoles v. Eccles, was called in the Supreme Court, Hamilton, this morning, Mr 11. T. Gillies, for the petitioner, Eleanor Phyllis Eccles, stated that she had been delayed on the limited express, which was due at Frankton at 7 a.m., but which had been held up with slips. The case was fixed for hearing tomorrow afternoon.

SOUTH-BOUND EXPRESS. RUNNING EIGHT HOURS LATE. {By Tclcirnipti.—Press AssoclnUon.) PALMERSTON N., Tuesday. Owing to delay through slips at Ongarue, the limited express, normally duo at Palmerston North at (L-i-’i a.m., is running eight hours late and is not expected to reach Palmerston North till :t p.ni.

Tills means the express will probably arrive in Wellington about 3.30 p.m.