RAILWAY HOLD-UP

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2522, 24 July 1915, Page 6

RAILWAY HOLD-UP

ON MAIN TRUNK LINE

ENGINES & CARRIAGE OVERTURNED

SOME NARROW ESCAPES

COLLAPSE OF AN EMBANKMENT CAUSES THE TROUBLE.

Messages received yesterday by tho Secretary of the Post' and Telegraph Department (Mr. W. . R. Morris) indicate a very serious hold-up of the Auckland* Wellington expresses through flood waters in the King Country. Yesterday morning. Mr. Morris received tho following telegram from the Chief Postmaster at Auckland:—

"Serious floods. Tho 12.40 p.m. express to-day for Wellington cancelled." "The 8.50 p.m. express to-night for Wellington not likely to get further than Frankton Junction."

"Tho Wellington express due in Auckland at 2.55 p.m. yesterday (Thursday) still at Poro-o-taroa. The passengers aro still at Puketutu."

"The express due in Auckland at 6.43 a.m. to-day and the express due in. Auckland at 2.55 p.m. to-day aro still at Taumarunui." ' "Further slips between. To Kuiti and Puketutu. Lino between Te Kuiti and Otoro'hanga under water in places. Yesterday's express from Auckland still at To Kuiti." "No present prospect of getting mails through by road. Water reported .to be slightly, abating."Collapse of a Bridge. 'At 5 o'clock last evening the secretary received the following message from the Postmaster at Taumarunui:— "Engine of tho express which left hero at 2.30 p.m. is reported to have fallen through bridge over .a stream at Taringamutu, two miles . from here. ' 'Engines said to .be in river and some carriages off line. The mail van was immediately behind the ell- •' gine."No One Injured, Later. "No one injured at Taringamutu. The mail-van is lying on its sido between two streams. _ The position at present most difficult to extricate train because engines capsized." FURTHER DETAILS. FIREMEN'S EXCITING ADVEN- ; TURES. By Telegraph.—Press .Association. Taumarunui, July 23. Passengers on the through Wellington to Auckland express, after a wait of several hours through slips on the line, left at 2.30 p.m. to-day in one train containing two engines in front, a postal van, one. sleeper, eight carriages, an.d two luggage vans. When two miles north of here the embankment gave way under the second engine. Tho two engines and the postal van turned clean, over —a drop of nino feet —partly into the Ongarue River. . Tho driver in 'the leading engine applied tlio brakes in good time. Tho whole pumico bank gave way for fifty yards near tho approach t-o the bridge. Over the culvert the train was going at a speed of two to three miles. . Tho driver, Petor Doyle, and the fireman, Geo. King, jumped clear from the first engine and were not injured. Fireman A. Payno jumped clear from tho second engine and escaped with slight injury to one hand. Driver W. M. Nicholson and District Engineer Jeffares rolled over in the cab of tho second engino and' escaped without a scratch. '

Two Auckland postal officials rolled over in tho van without injury. V

The sleeping car was derailed and went partly down tho bank empty. No passengers were injured.^ Driver Doyle, Fireman King, and Guard W. Duncan were in charge of tho express in the Raurimu accident last Saturday. After a further delay of several hours tho passengers last night transferred to a train beyond tho gap for Auckland. The down express' passengers' transferred to this side. ANOTHER ACCOUNT. '•"TRAIN SMASHED INTO A CULVERT."(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) . Auckland, July 23. The first express leaving Taumarunui for Auckland since yesterday morning loft at 2.20 p.m. to-day. Ono mile out tho engine fell through a bridge. Tho train included tho 1.10 p.m. and 9.10 p.m. trains from Wellington yesterday. Particulars.are meagre, .but it appears that the 'express, which left about 2.20 p.m., convcycd several hundred passengers and was an unusually lengthy train, consisting really of the passengers of the previous expresses from . Wellington, all of whom had. been held lip by tho slips.' Tho train smashed into a culvert just alongside tho Ongarue River bridge. The culvert is a few yards in front 'of the bridge, and the flood waters.had so weakened the supports that it gave way under the weight of tho engine. .This meant that the first engine .practically left tho rails and crashed oil to the bridge, carrying .that structure away with it as it dived into the river. The second engine was also derailed, " but fortunately capsized before reaching the edge- of the river bank, and so probably saved the whole train from piling ovor tho broken bridge into tho stream. The mail van attached to the second engine also left tho rails and capsized. This also acted, as something of a buffer for the rest of tho train, which was brought to a very sudden standstill. ' All-tho passengers, particularly those in the front . carriages, received a frightful shaking, but fortunately _ no one was badly 'hurt. How the enginedrivers and firemen on the overturned engines escaped it is not known, and is difficult to understand, for tho train, though travelling at a greatly-reduced speed,' nevertheless had considerable way on.. So far as can at present be ascertained, however, thoso on both engines were unhurt. The postal van, wlifich was overturned, has been, in three railway smashes. _ It has gone through tho Whangamarino and Raurimu collisions, as well as the present mishap. .- It will, of course, be sonio days before ertn temporary repairs can bo effected to the bridge, which means continued interruption of the Main Trunk traffic. Lieutenant S, 'A'. Carr, who is a passenger by the train, telegraphed at 4.30 p.m.: "Train derailed. Quito safe. Marvellous escape. If any bad rumours toll papers all troops safe." The troops referred to aro soldiers on leavo belonging to tho Sixth Reinforcements. "EXAGGERATED REPORTS." IN EARLIER 'ACCOUNTS OF MISHAP Auckland, July 23. Earlier accounts of tho mishap on tho Main. Trunk lino taken from tho late edition of tho evening paper provo to havo been much exaggerated. Tho facts as telegraphed by tho "Herald's" Taumarunui correspondent aro that a long train drawn by two powerful engiues loft Taumarunui for the north as already described. Shortly after two o'clock, and nearly thrco miles further on, the „t(aia had tq cross what tbs railway.

authorities apparently already regarded as a dangerous place. Owing to tho I'iss of tho Ongarue Kiver a culvert had become blockcdt and the water was forced into an old .watercourse and partly washed away and softened the low railway embankment crossing this watercourse, and also softened tho filling under tho sleepers in tho immediate vicinity. The train was going dca(t slow, and approached aud partly crossed this place, and then tho line subsided and canted, and the two engines and tho mail van following rolled slowly over on to their sides, and tho train camo to a stop without much shock. Not a bolt of tho engines has been disarranged, and it is only a question of putting thorn back on to tho lino again. Tho cnginenian jumped from tho first engine, and tho fireman jumped from tho second, but the driver and the District Engineer (Mr. Jeffares) wero rolled over in tho cab of tho second engine, and two postal clorks had a similar experience in the mail van. No 0110 w;as injured. The south-boimd express from Auckland ihas reached within a few miles of. tho scene of derailment, and 'hopes aro entertained that the section of lino between the two will be workjvblo shortly. Rains liavo ceased, and tho rivers are subsiding, but reports of considerable damage by floods, are still coming in from tho back-blocks boyond Taumarunui and To Kuiti.

BRIDGES UNSAFE FOR TRAFFIC. Taumarunui, July 23. The expresses "north and south will not get through. Tho bridge over tho Ongarue River at Taumarunui- is con" sidered unsafe. A LOCAL STATEMENT.' The local office of tho Railway Department advise that after arranging to tranship passengers, it was found that tho south-bound express could; not get within two miles of the nortli-bound, and transhipping had to he abandoned. Passengers in the north-hound are • being brought back to Taumarunui. • Tho south-hound passengers aro at Okahukura. There is a dining-car and 80 passengers on the train. . _ The passengers who reached ie Miti from Taumarunui yesterday morning are still at Te Kuiti, and last advice is that there is no prospect of getting to Frankten to-night. All trains between taumarunui and Frankton (ire suspended. The line south of Taumarunui is clear. Evidently' a slip at Puketutu has come down after the passing of tho south-bound train, .shutting that train in between Tanng«n;utu and Puketutu. -■ '