STUCK IN THE RIMUTAKA TUNNEL

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1008, 24 December 1910, Page 5

STUCK IN THE RIMUTAKA TUNNEL

. MAIL TRAIN BEATS A RETREAT. His Excellency; the Governor ind' his . party, with the other passengers by Jiißt;iiight's Wairarapa-Wellington mail express,' had an unlooked-for experience while. travelling up- to tho Summit, ..the;train sticking up in the second tunnel and having to be backed down again to "Siberia" before the ascent could 1 ; bo successfully ' negotiated. The train comprised six full passenger cars, the :vice-regal party's carriage, two baggage cars, two brako vans, and three Fell engines. The track leading from "Siberia" up through the second tunnel is about tho steepest on . tho line,' the ascent being ono in fourteen. .There is also a difficult,curve on emerging from ..the Wellington side of the tunnel, and last night greasy rails add- ( ed' to the difficulties of haulage; At tho first- attempt half tho train, including the vice-Vegal. car, got through, but the engines then refused to go farther. They howled and screamed; and tooted, while their firemen and engiriedrivers plied their shovels with accelerated intensity, but all to no effcct. . Amid tho hissing of clouds of steam arid -.sulphurous, smoke, tho brakes were loosened, and the train backed slowly down,; those passongers who had been m the tunnel all the time having had a particularly warm experience from tho steam and smoke belched from the third . locomotive. Starting again from "Siberia," the whole of the locomotives put on all the steam they 'and .. after much difficulty succeeded in crawling through the.tunnel. 'The train-ul- .. .iimately_ . arrived ,at : Lambton ;;Station.