MAIN TRUNK EXPRESS DERAILED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3990, 24 July 1915, Page 5

MAIN TRUNK EXPRESS DERAILED.

NARROW ESCAPE FROM SERIOUS DISASTER. TWO ENGINES AHO MAIL VAN LEAVE THE RAILS. NO CASUALTIES REPORTED. (Press Association Telegram.) AUCKLAND, .July 23. The first express leaving Taunuiruuni for Auckland since yesterday morning left at 2.30 p.m. to-day. One mile out tlie engine fell through a .bridge. The train included the 1.10 p.m. and 0.10 p.m. trains from Wellington yesterday. Particulars, are meagre, but it appears that the express, which left about 2.30 p.m., conveyed several hundred passengers and was an unusually lengthy tram, corisking really of the passengers of three previous expresses from Wellington. all of whom had been held up by the slips. The train smashed into a culvert just alongside the Ongarue River biidge. The culvert is a few yards in front of the bridge and the flood, waters bad so weakened the supports (hat it gave way under tbe weight of the engine. This meant that the first engine practically Kit the rails and crashed on to tiie bridge, carrying that structure away with it as it dived into six river. The second engine was also derailed, hut fortunately capsized before reaching the edge of tin- river hank and so probably saver) - L ] i( > whole train front piling over the broken bridge into the stream. "i lie mail van attached to the second engine also left tiie rails and capsized. This also acted as something of a buffer for tiie rest of tbe train, which was brought to a verv sudden standstill. All tin; passengers, particularly those in the front carriages, received a frightful shaking, but fortunately noone was badly hurt. How tin- wigim drivers and firemen on tiie overturned engines escaoed it is not known and is difficult to understand. for the train, though travelling at a greatly-reduced speed, nevertheless lmd considerable way on. •So far as can at present be ascertained, however, those on both engines were unhurt. The postal van which was overturned has been in three railway smashes. It has gone through the Whangamarino and Raurimu collisions, as well as the present mishap. It will, of course, he some days before even temporary repairs can he effected to the bridge, which means continued interruption of the Main Trunk traffic. Lieut. S. A. Carr, who is a passenger by the train. r< Rgraphed at 4.40 p.m. as follows: “Train derailed ; quite safe : marvellous escape. If any bad rumors tell papers all troops safe.” The troops referred to are soldiers on leave belonging to the Sixth Reinforcmeiits.

LATEST REPORTS. EARLIER STORY EXAGGERATED. AUCKLAND. July 2-3. Earlier accounts of mishap on the Main Trunk line, taken from the late edition or the evening paper Drove to have been nuic-ii exaggerated. Tho facts, as telegraphed bv tlie 1 Herald’s” Taumarunui corresponder.. are that a long train drawn bv two p -*rful engines left Taumarunui for the north, as already described, she ruv after two o’clock, and nearly t..ree miles further on had to cross v ..at the railway authorities apparently already regarded as a dangerous place. Owing to a rise of the- Ongarue River, the culvert had become blocked and the water was forced into the old watercourse and partly washed away and softened tlie low railway embankment crossing this watercourse and also softened the filling under the sleepers in the immediate vicinity. The train which was going dead slow approached and partly crossed this place and the line subsided and cantea tiie two engines and the imui van following, which rolled slowly over on to their sides and the train came to a stop without much shock- Not a bolt of the engines has been disarranged and it is only a question of putting them back on to tlie line again. The etiginemen jumped from the first engine and the fireman jumped from the second, but the driver and District Engineer Jeftares were rolled over in the cab of the second engine and two postal clerks had a similar experience in the mad van. None were injured. The south-bound express irom Auckland has reached within a few miles of the scene of the derailment and hopes are entertained that the section of line between the two will In? workable shortly. The rains have ceased and the rivers are subsiding, hut reports oi considerable damage by floods are still coming in from the back blocks beyond Taumarunui and To Kuiti.

WHOLE SERVICE DISORCANISED P\S HUNGERS' UNENVIABLE EXPERIENCE. (Press Association Telegram.) WELLINGTON. July 23 The following statement fiom the General Manager of Ra Iwavs was issued at 10 o'clock to-night: “After arranging to tranship passengers, it was found that the "south-bound express could not get within two miles of the north-hound one, and transhipping had to be abandoned. Passengers in the north-bound express i* r o being brought back to Taumarunui The "south-bound passengers are at Okahukura. There is a dining-car and eightv passengers on the tiaut. Passengers who reached Te Kuiti from Taumarunui this morning are still at To Kuiti. and our last advice is that there is no prospect of getting to Frankton to-night. All trains between Taumarunui and Frankton are suspended. The line south of Taumarunui is clear. Evidently a slip has come down again after the passing of the southward train, sinning that train in between Taringaimu .*. aid Pukeiutu.”