THE RECENT RAILWAY ACCIDENT, MASTERTON.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue XXIII, 3 December 1898, Page 722

THE RECENT RAILWAY ACCIDENT, MASTERTON.

The very heavy rain in the Hutt Valley on the 18th of last month was the cause of quite a number of accidents on the railways in that district, but fortunately no lives were lost.. A mile beyond Kaitoke a train was blocked by a car getting off the line, and the northern express, which ran down to take the passengers off was blocked by a slip in front. The train got the passengers on board, and on trying to return it was found another large slip had come down in its rear. Both trains were thus hemmed in, 'and the passengers had to stay in the cars all night, as the slips were impassable. A dangerous boulder came down the hillside, burst through a van, and struck guard I’ayne on the leg, disabling him.

In the meantime, a rescue train despatched from tipper Hutt disappeared altogether. All that was heard of it was a short message after midnight saying that a culvert had fallen in. Three trains were thus stuck up within a few miles.

In addition to these misfortunes a brief message was received stating that the late goods train from Masterton to Cross Creek had fallen through a bridge over a small stream near the latter place. The men on the goods train had a narrow escape. The flood had undermined the supports of the bridge over the creek, and in the darkness the engine plunged on to a rickety structure, and without warning turned over on its side, and the waggons were piled up in all directions.

The train included a ganger’s travelling compartment, but the four gangers who had been residing in it left the train at Masterton, and they probably owe their lives to this fact, for the compartment was completely wrecked, and had they been in it they would have had a poor chance of escaping with their lives.

Our illustration shows the condition of the train after the accident.