PASSENGERS SHAKEN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 59, 7 September 1926, Page 10

PASSENGERS SHAKEN

FAULTY SHUNTING

CABBIAGE COUPLINGS BROKEN.

Passengers who travelled to' town this morning on the Hutt line, aud who expected to reach their offices ■by 9 o'clock, were disappointed. ' The train which arrives at the Lower Hutt. station at half-past 8 is always well filled, and the usual practice is for the engine to shunt on a number of extra carriages. This was done this morning, but the two halves of the train met with considerably more than usual force. The jolt was sufficient to throw a few passengers out of their seats, and as the train was crowded there was a general melee of passengers, hats, pipes, and morning papers. The first jolt was immediately followed by a second of less intensity, and then there was a general scramble to the windows and doors to see what had happened. Fortunately no one was hurt, but startled looks and a few white faces amongst the lady passengers were noticed. ( Seats were resumed, but even then the passengers' troubles were not finished. The shock had been too much for the couplings between two carriages, and'they quietly parted, the damage being officially described as one coupling hook broken and two hooks straightened. As this carriage had to be sent to the workshops for repairs, a transfer of passengers from the rear part of "the train to the already crowded front carriages was necessary, and further delay was caused during the shunting of the derelict carriages on to a siding. While this was going on another vigorous jolt was experienced, and passengers began to wonder what the termination of the journey was going to be. Lambton Station was, however, eventually reached after' a delay of twenty minutes, and passengers, as they walked past the engine, practised their wit at the driver's expense.'