POWER HAZARD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20024, 24 August 1939, Page 14

POWER HAZARD

TRAINS DISRUPTED

WIRE FIXED TO KITE

FLOWN ACROSS LTNKS (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, last night. A kite with a fine copper wire instead of string attached to it was flown by someone yesterday over the 11,000-volt feeder which carries electric power from Addington to Woolston for the Christchureh-Lyttelton electric railway. The kite wire came down across the feeder wire and the 1560-volt overhead gear of the railway, with the result that the electric power was interrupted and train services delayed.

A railway employee narrowly escaped a fatal electric shock and the public were exposed to the same risk. The interruption to power occurred about 10 a.m.

Patrol Officrs of the Public Works Department immediately set out to find the cause of the break. The crossing keeper .at Ensor’s road provided the necessary clue when he informed thej /oatt'cil <that he had seen an electric flash some distance down the line. A train which pulled in to Woolston station carried k a further, clue. It was trailing a long length of fine cotton-covered copper wire.

In jhe meantime a further length of this wire had been found by the patrols hanging from the overhead railway wires. As it looked like a piece of string it was not at first regarded with suspicion, and a railway surfaceman was about to pull it down. Fortunately—for the hanging wire was then carrying 1500 volts —an electrical equipment officer warned him not to touch it.