SCENE OF ACCIDENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 19 July 1929, Page 5

SCENE OF ACCIDENT

ONE OF THE HIGHEST ON LINE Two Sydney footballers, Westfield ami Lamport, picked to represent Aus-

tralia against Xcw Zealand in Saturday's test, were passengers. The All Blacks had left Arniidale by an earlier train intending to transfer to the Brisbane cxpjress at Wallangarra, where the improvised train is not expected before 8 in the afternoon. Both tlie. main and loop lines are blocked by the overturned carriages. The night was one of the coldest known in Sydney and frosts were general in all elevated country. The scene of the accident is one of the highest on the line—433o feet above sea level. The train rushed through the Black Mountain station, though apparently speed had been reduced on account of the thick fog shrouding the mountain sides, and when just past the home signal the coaches lurched heavily, there was a heavy grinding of brakes, and a shrill screeching of steel rasping and ripping on steel. Passengers were awakened by the sickening plunge. The two locomotives hauling the train up the grade remained on the line, but the wheels of the car in the body of the train left the rails and ploughed the permanent way. A second coach was dragged with it, and both swung over at a dangerous angle. A third carriage followed, and all went over on their sides with a deafening crash, passengers being flung from sleeping berths against the roofs of the cabins. Three other coaches making up the train left the line, and tore up the roadway, but did not capsize. Passengers were jolted, but not thrown from the berths. In the freezing dawn the passengers lit fnes arid huddled round them in an effort to keep warm. The sound of the crash attracted nearby settlers, who provided hot tea and did what they could for the passengers' com fort.