KITE CAUSES TROUBLE

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20890, 23 August 1939, Page 14

KITE CAUSES TROUBLE

CONTACT WITH POWER LINES COPPER-WIRE USED AS STRUNG (By Telegraph.—Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday A kite with a fine copper-wire instead of string attached to it was flown over the 11.000 volt feeder which carries electric power frrvm Addington to Woolston for the Christ-church-Lyttleton electric railway. The kite wire came down across the feeder wire and the 1500-volt overhead gear of the railway, and the electric power was interrupted and train services delayed. Patrol officers of the Public Works Department set out to find the cause Of the break. A crossing-keeper reported that he had seen a flash and a train which pulled in at Woolston carried a further clue, as it was trailing a long length of line cotton-covered copper wire. In the meantime a further length of this wire had been found hanging from the overhead railway wires. As it looked like a piece of string it was not at first regarded with suspicion, and a railway surfaceman was about to pull it down. Fortunately—for the hanging wire was then carrying 1500 volts—an electrical equipment officer warned him not to touch it. When a magpie carried a piece of wire into the main power line between Ashburton one wire to be burned right through and a second partly through. Powder was weak in the Methven and Mayfield districts for about half an flour till the Mitcham loop line was cut in.