AUCKLAND EXPRESS DELAILED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3670, 26 July 1927, Page 3

AUCKLAND EXPRESS DELAILED.

NEAR. OTAKI.

NOBODY INJURED

Otaki, Yesterday

The southbound Auckland express was derailed a hundred yards from the Otaki station this morning, capsizing the engine and the postal van and a second-class “smoker.” No one was injured. A great deal of damage was done to the line, and a rail penetrated a portion of the engine. There were ninety passengers on the train, seventeen being in the second-class carriage. The smash was heard a quarter of a mile away. The Napier and New Plymouth trains were held up and. passengers were transhipped.' The Napier mail returned to Wellington, and an engine {from ' Palmerston North will take the Auckland carriages north. The train was luckily travelling at only about twenty miles per hour, as repairs were being made to the line.

The accident was probably due to a defective rail and may have been associated with the effect of frost. A relief train left Palmerston North at 12.9 p.m. to pick up passengers from the New Plymodth and Napier expresses. A breakdown train was qhickly dispatched from Wlellington to the scene of the mishap. The construction of a.loop line was concentrated upon and this was completed in time for the flight’s Limited Express for the North to pass over.