AN EXTRAORDINARY RAILWAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1000, 15 December 1910, Page 4

AN EXTRAORDINARY RAILWAY.

& DAYLIGHT-TO-DARIv SENSATION. (By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.) Chrisichurch, December 13. -The first passenger train from Christchurch to run out to the Cass, the extension from Broken River, towards the West Coast, performed the journey yesterday. There was no preliminary flourish of trumpets and no congratulatory speeches by Cabinet Ministers or cut citizens. The only official indication of the change was that the destinationsignal exhibited at tho Christchurch station' showed the words, * "Cass train." Tho train, proceeded at-a cautious pace: through tho succession of tunnels, allowing the passengers in the brief intervals, between the tubes glimpses of the precipitous and rugged gorge which secured for Broken River its distinctive naihe. Tha train crossed the viaduct' over Sloven's Creek, from .which could bo obtained a bird's-eye view of the gorge. The most remarkable structure on the line from an engineering point of view is tlie Sloven's Creek Viaduct. Its height is 105 ft. above tha bed of the creek. \ There are nine spans of 33ft. 9in. c;jch, and'three spans of 80ft. each. It is supported bv four steel piers set in concrete foundations and five concrete piers. There are windshields on each side to protect trains from the boisterous winds which sometimes sweep down the gorges. On the westward side of the viaduct is tho famous "No. 17 Cutting," which .was to have been a tunnel. The ground, however, proved to be so treacherous that tho tunnel had to be abandoned, and the side of tho hill was shovelled away to find tho level for the line. Away to the right, far above the line, one may distinguish the white ribbon of tho old coach road. The road eventually comes down to meet tho line, and for some distance they move westward in company sid-e by side. The line between Otarama and Sloven's Creek possesses the distinction, not perhaps an enviable One, of being the most tunnelled on the New Zealand railways, that is from tho point of. view of the number of tunnels per mile. There ore no fetfer than sixteen tunnels in seven miles, ten lying - between Otarama and Broken River, "ami six between Broken River and Sloven's Creek. The six tnnnels are all very, short, as the whole distance between Broken River and Sloven's Creek is only sixtvseven chains. The passenger pets" a peculiar "from-davlight-to-dark" sensation as the train dives from the open into the tunnel tube.