MAIN TRUNK DISASTER

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2175, 13 June 1914, Page 6

MAIN TRUNK DISASTER

. PROBING THE CASE. SMALL REEL IN MECHANISM; 4. - ; '.. . ' WAS IT RESPONSIBLE? THE AID GIVEN.TO THE INJURED. (Br Triterash.—Press Association.) Auckland, June 12. At tho inquest to-day concerning- tho death of the three victims of tho recent Main Trunk collision, Robert Bell, railway clerk, who took charge of affairs at after the accident, said tho signal had worked very well on May 27, after lie had adjusted it. He had found on testing it that tho tension iwas not-correct; tho arm would not drop properly, 'nor would it return to "danger" fully.. He therofore. altered the tension,.and then tho signal worked perfectly. At'lo.3o the same night he found tho signal ttill working well. Shortly after midnight, however, tho -porter reported that he could not see the back light of the south signal. -Itwas then found -to' bo' showing full green, whoreas it should liavo been at "danger." Ho concluded that the contraction had been such that it was impossible to work tho signal. --William Johnston, -tablet porter, who ,had been sent to relievo at Whangamarino, ,was,,theu'called. Ho gave evidence corroborative of that given by tho - previous After recounting hoWj they had made several attempts, when • the signal failcdiafter midnight, on May \ 27', to get..it ,back to position, he explained that the best that the . light would do' was to' show half red and half '"green. On ;tho night of May 28 (after the accident). ho resumed, duty at 10 o'clock, and between II and 11.30 p.m. ihb' found' that the'»south signal was again , , working , defectively, showing about half red and half green.' He accordingly sent a telegram to the man- . ager, got out tho fog signal, and took other precautions. About 2.30 a.m. on May 29 he received instructions from the manager to givo all trains from the south tho hand signal, and meanwhilo not to,' interfere with tho mechanism. About-3 a.m. .vsignal adjuster arrived, and he - was- rabout ,to examine tho signal and wiro when witness informed him of the instructions. The; adjuster replied that-those instruc- * tions were only for him (Johnston), but witness telegraphed again for- reinstruetipn,' and received a rejily confirming the first message; so nothing was done till between 5 o'clock- and 7 o'clock in the iraorning, -when the'adjuster and another attended to; ;th.o; signal, putting a few more links in tho chain nit tho platform, and so'■ loosening tho wire!' After this tho 6i'gnal .worked a-1; right. To Mr. Martin: He had seen occasions when, at -night timo, the wire of tho semaphore had had to bo slackened out by altering tho .weights, but ho had never experienced anything like what had happened at Wliangamaritio.

Signal Adjuster's. Evidence. John Cruickshank, signal adjuster, stated that he had arrived at Whangamarino about 11.30 a.m. on tho morning of Thursday, May 28. He did not interfere with anything, but examined tho iviro and signal, and found everything correct. , Tlio chief detective: You made no alterations or. repairs of any kind? Witness': No, I wished everything to bo left as it was, untouched.

And did you return? —"Yes; about 3 a.m. next morning. I waited till Mr. Cheeseman arrived by tho WellingtonAuckland express, and then wo tested tho signal. I pulled over the lever Tvliilo Mr. Cheeseman was up at the stick. When I put the lever back I could not see the back light, and Mr. Cheeseman then camo down,- and told mo. that the semaphore went back to 'Banger,' but not, sufficiently to show tho back light. We, therefore, pnt in three links of chain in front of tho platform to loosen tho wire. Wo also removed tho 201b. • weight at'the balance lever, and replaced it with a 301b. eight:' It was by this time about breaking day, and Mr. Cheeseman took tho temperature which at 5 o'clock ivas 30 degrees."

■ Chief Detective M'Mahon : Were any wheels replaced at tlio signals that day? Witness : No. . Not on' that day. 'About six month's," pfior" to .tlie accident an additional wheel was' placed there. \ '

At what point?—r"'Well, .two wheels were token out, and three pjit in. They were taken out about four chains down the lino'and'piit in about opposito the signal."-

How the Reel Was Put In. Wcro tho wheels which were pnt in of tho same diameter as thoso taken

out?—"No; I put in a 12in. flat wlieel, '[ and a lOin. vertical wheel in placo of two 12in. flat wheels, "and I iidded a running vertical of an inch and a half in diameter'at tho top of 'tho bank where' thero liad previously been .no wheel ~at .all,-^llio*wire running dircctly,: on to '■the'-'poat*" l ' •«' ; ' .Withess, coiitihuing, ; stfl'tcd tjiat he' had visited Whangamnrino again on , May 31, and found that tho ISin. reel had bociv replaced by an Sin. wheel. Tho reason for tho change would'bo that it would cause less' friction. Cliiof-Dotcctive M'Mahon: Do you say that tho Um. reel causod too much friction ?— "No, Ido not. It worked all right for six months, but an Bin. wlieel would certainly causo less ■ To Mr. Mays: ]fc was truo that,- in- :■ stead of reporting .the"; alteration" iria(V at Wftangamarino in the ordinary journal, he should have made a special report.on the matter. Ho agreed that tho friction on a,,small inch and a half reel would bo considerablo in cold weather, but tho balanco on tho platform lover would adjust that. Mr. Frazei' • Have you ever seen a one and'a half-inch ,reel used permanently in such a situation? AVitnoss:'No; I.have -nob, but it. was nil that 1, had at' tlio'time. To Mr. Martin: 110 was a carpenter by trade, and, cxcept for instruction . m signal adjusting,-ho had no knowledge of mechanics. Ho had, however, mado what he bolioved was the -proper allowance for tho contraction of the wire'.' "

■ Tiio Coroner: Do I take it that it was a broach of your regular instructions, to have undertaken this alteration at the rctfiScfcE. "dfctlfo.; permailcht way- inspector without notifying your own superior? . : Witness: '"STes. I shouldhavenotified my own-superior bet'oro beginning tho work.'' Witness added /that ho had never done work similar to that beforo without notifying the inspector, and, as far as ho. knew, the signal inspector did not see, tho work afterwards. - He admitted that tho alteration, did not comply with a circular stating that none other .than standard .materials should be used in alterations of signal machanism. Mors About the Reel. Mr. Mays then called Henry John Wynn,-signalling and electrical engineer for the New Zealand Railways since March, 1900. There were at that date, witness said, only 150 fixed signals in use,' but, since then, ho had erected 1930 more. He had also installed tho electric train tablet system. On Friday, June C, ho examined tho signal gear at AVhangamarino, anil both signals were then working in perfect order. Ho had caused the south home signal to be put in exactly the game condition as it was on the.night of tho accident, and, on testing it, lie found

that the signal would neither come right off nor go right buck 'to "Danger." Ho observed a small reel which was fitted at the top of the bank about twelve feet away, .and he then signalled to a, man whom ho had left back at the lever to pull off the signals, meantimo watching the working of tho chain ovor this reel. It worked in a very erratic manner. The reason, in witness's opinion, was that this reel was too small to allow tho chain to work over it properly. He could find nothing else wrong with tho signals. His Department had received no notice of tho alteration made to the gear, and the small reel was not up to standard requirements. Until that alteration was made the signal had always worked satisfactorily.' Tho failure of the signal was decidedly not duo solely to contraction'caused by temperature. For years ho had been supplied with tho Board of Trado Teports on railway accidents at Homo, and ho had never read of a case of a signal being pulled off to tho "Clear" position by tho contraction of a wire along. In witness's opinion tho failuro of tho signal was duo to the wiro being set too tight. Any contraction of the wiro would then be bound to pull tho . signal. It was necessary to set tho wiro tighter than it should havo been set to get it to work over tho small reel. Cruickshanks' action in putting in this small reel was attributed by witness to the fact thaf he used the only matorial which he had at the momeiit. It might have been his intention to havo replaced it with proper gear afterwards, and he might have forgotten to do so. The only other explanation was that, in witness's opinion, Cruickshank committed an error of judgment.

"A Fortune for Some One." Continuing his evidence, Mr. Wynn said the;tablet system in force neither contributed to nor could have prevented the accident. It was the first accident that' bad over happened in New Zealand owing to signal defects. In endeavouring to cross the trains at Whangamarino at the time of tho accident as .he/(lid, Donaldson was acting strictly in'"accordance with tho regulations. His (Donaldson's) only fault, from tho''railway, ipoint of view, was that ho haftjfailed to see that his signal was properly at "Danger" by observation of. tho back light. .

To tho' Cdroner: There was a fortune waiting, f.pj- r ariyone who could invent a signalling system'which was absolutely reliable.

Replying to Mr. Mays, witness said that tho Department was,' as fast as possible, .making long loops at various statious 'as nearly approximating a double line as poss.ible. Tho system of crossing trains, as at' WTiangamarino on the night of tho • accident, was in accordance with the best railway practice for single-line systems.

Promptness of Medical Aid. Herbert Alister Pope," : station clerk at Mercer, - who was on duty from midnight on tho date of tho accident, was' called; by Mr. Mays to give- evidence as to measures taken for the relief of passengers, and the dispatch- of a working gang to .the scene. / " Cecil Robert Bell, who was in charge of relief operations at Whangamarino (le-called) gave similar evidence, detailing the assistance rendered to tho injured. There was no "red tape" delay, no lack of initiative, nor any want of "appreciation of tho true position. To-Mr. Stewart: There was no truth in tho statements that had been' mado that the dead wore callously, treated The injured received attention with tho utmost dispatch.

Walter Bowles, traffic manager at Auckland, ■ gave in evidence the result of a Departmental irigujry as . to'the steps taken % 'all members of the railway staff to afford the earliest possible medical and other aid. Immediately after the news of the accident was received at Mercer a relief train was prepared, and all available men gathered, but, as plenty of labour was available at' the. scene, it was considered that the ,dispatch of this train would not be advantageous, as doctors were the first necessity; Moreover, owing to such a train being unable, to (Jear tho section at the Whangamarino end, it would have had to return to Mercer before another train could with safety havo been dispatched. This would probably have further delayed the doctors. The witness also described the measures taken to secure doctors at Pukekohe and Tuakau, and time was necessarily occupied ill so doing. Before the arrival of the doctors the nurses did excellent work with the amplo ambulance material available in. the _guard's,vans. Tliev gave tho injured immediate and skilled attention. As to a- suggestion that the engine of tho goods train at Whangamarino could havo been used to run to iHuntly .for doctors, witness said that this was considered, but it* was not, however, anticipated that 1 here would bo any loss of time in getting the Pukekoho and Tuakau' doctors, and consequently it was reasonably concluded that the engine of a goods train, then near Pukekoho and within 19 miles of the scone, could convey medical relief quicker than an engine which would-havo to run to Huntly, take water, and then run back to_ Whangamarino, a total distance of 30 miles. !