RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2558, 22 March 1923, Page 3

RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

CATASTROPHE NARROWLY AVERTED.

WHEN APPROACHING MANAWATU BRIDGE.

Passengers by the mixed train from Wellington, which arrives in Palmerston North at 3.10 p.m., had a miraculous escape yesterday afternoon, when ail axle on one of the wagons broke in half when the train was approaching the Manawatu bridge, just before reaching Longburn.

Interviewed later by a “Times” reporter, a passenger by the train stated that the first intimation the passengers had that anything was amiss was when the train pulled up with an alarming jolt, just on the beginning of the curve swinging in to the bridge. Upon getting out, they noticed immediately the wheel of one of the wagons lying at the rear end of the train beside the track About two chains further up on the train, one of the L wagons, laden with coal, had capsized, at the same time derailing the adjoining truck. The axle was missing, and two of the other wheels had also been smashed up like timber, and pieces of the under body was strewn a.long the line. The train had pulled up within about two chains of where the wheel had come off and looking back over the line, which the train had traversed, it was noticeable that the broken axle had ploughed a deep furrow and cut up the sleepers between the tracks for as far as the eye could see. It was evident that the train had continued for about two chains after the wagon lost the axle and wheel.

The two engines took the first portion of the train on to Longburn, returning later with a small crew. The men unloaded the wagon and alter about two hours, succeeded in jacking it and throwing it to the side of the line. The other wagon which was full of coal, was eventually put back on the line. The Main Trunk express was held up at Linton the while.

But the disturbing factor of the accident —a truth that was apparent to every passenger on board' — was the nearness to the Manawatu Bridge of the scene of the breakdown. When the train pulled up, it lacked only a chain or two of the bridge. Had the wheel left the wagon but a few seconds later —when (lie train was on (he bridge —there would most certainly have x-esulted a very serious smash, if not the total fall of the train from the bridge. In the words of one of the railway men: “Anything might have happened—we’d have taken a longer journey than a trip to Palmerston North.”

The train was a big one with two engines, and the truck with the broken axle was about in the middle of the train, some of the trucks carrying pig iron and heavy railway rolling gear. Thus it is evident that if (ho wheel left the wagon while on the bridge, the truck would most certainly have crashed through the wooden sides, and dragged with it the remaining wagons, trucks and carriages. The train was' pulled up with commendable promptitude. Afterbeing set right again, it steamed into Palmerston North station little the worse for the accident that might have ended so disastrously. The Auckland express reached Palmerston North at 5.20 p.m., instead of 3.45 p.m., departing again at 5.34. The train from New Plymouth was held at Palmerston N. station, departing at 4.52 p.m.