The Train Smash.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 August 1922, Page 4

The Train Smash.

FURTHER PARTICULARS

| llV TEI.MG It A l*TI —UF.H PRESS ASSOCIATION

AUCKLAND, August 12,

“It was touch and go. and how wo got out of it so tightly I do not know” said Kngincdriver -A. Blackwell of the sooth bound main trunk expies-s. I quite thought it was all up with us, and wo have had a wonderful escape. T was drivin" at a maximum sliced of 4o miles an bon. and suddenly I felt j‘>Us and know we bad run over something. I whippe 1 on the emergency brake and at once tv* started swaying from side to side. It seemed a* though Wa were cert ahi to tip over one bank or the other. The engine was hopping about all over the place and we had to bang on an 1 trust In luck. The tender collapsed and practically broke ofl. The fact that it ploughed into the ground as it was pulled along helped to stop the train. From the spot where no struck the cattle to where we pulled up. 'us- only about one hundred yards. This slums the beauty.of the Westinghouse brake, ft gripped the coaches and held them rigid in their place, otherwise there is no knowing what might have happened. ]t is a wonder the train was not telescoped but the tender held the first postal van, and the other coaches in turn were gripped tight and remained steady. About tlurty yards before the engine came to a Hton. *t took tin* points and ran on to ;t siding." The opinion was expressed by the driver, that the cause of the engine running on to the siding must have been that, portion of the carcase of the row became entangled with the points There were three postal clerks in charge of the mails in the second van. T. 1). Robb, J. Deacon, and S. S. Dunstan. They had a memorahle experience. Their car crashed and splintered. Their story *vns in the form of some vivid impressions. First, of till there was a sttccessiomon of bumps. Dieso were billowed by a \ iolent swaying which compelled them to take a firm hold of the Stoppers. Then the mailbags as one clerk graphically phrased it “began to jazz", while all the letters leapt I rout their pigeonholes jttul (lettered all over the van The windows crashed but just as the postal officials expected a final smash.ip, the train came to a stop. Tlie chaotic eon fusion of the mailbags and letters in the van was indescribable. They looked as if everything bad fallen from a wrecked aeroplane. The disorder was quickly set aright, the clerks sorting letters ns though they had been in it <oinfortnhle room at headquarters. Not a letter was defaced.

(i. F Harris, of Wellington who was in tli?. second carriage said tlie first thing was the sudden grinding of tlie brakes Tlien tlie carriage was violently rocked about. Tltere was some apprehension when the woodwork above the door started breaking in on account of the iron and woodwork of the platform roof being forced back by the crushing weight. The suspense that followed was ended by three severe jerks and a bang as the train stopped. 'Beyond the fact that one man hurriedly picked up I his hag and started to heat a retreat everyone remained in flipir seats.

THE OFFICIA L VIEIV. 1 AUCKLAND, August 12. Officials of the Traffic Department on receiving word of the accident at Drury, lost no time in taking steps to trails- j fer the passengers, luggage and mails to j the second train, which was brought from Mercer. This train loft Drurv for Wellington about 1.10 this morning. A breakdown gang was quickly despatched from Auckland to clear the track and repair the line in order for there to ho as little interruption as possible. Tt is expected a temporary loop will be constructed to earn- the railway traffic rails and debris will take some time to remove. All engine, two postal vans,and a reserved passenger ear were the ones which ran on to the siding. All are more or leas sevei ely damaged underneath. The tender has a pronounced tilt to the left-, its wheels are i completely buried. The trnsli was tom and twisted for about seventy five

yards, while all the under gear of the engine and postal vans was shattered or shorn away. Most of these vehicles were embedded to a depth of about [ four feet in the formation of a track. One postal van -was careered towards the right embankment, while the other ' had a list to the Vft. That they rel mnined upright at all du*ing the crash and splintered upheaval, among the i tangle of the tract", : s beyond cxpla- ■ nation. Though the "■nginemon were ; shaken bndlv they reeoi”ed no bruises. ; Fireman Miller was slighllv scalded by ■ boiling oil from the feed pipe, as he l st'Hid at his post in the cab. Tie made I light ol the incident.