RAILWAY LANDSLIP

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 237, 22 December 1916, Page 2

RAILWAY LANDSLIP

KARAKA GUTTING ENVELOPED. ROTORUA EXPRESS DERAILED. Railway Service Blocked.

As the result of some 75 yards of the bank of the new Karaka cutting, about one mile north of the Paerata station, collapsing yesterday, afternoon and enveloping the line the Rotorua express, bound for Auckland, ran into the obstruction. Although the engine left the rails and mounted the side of the bank head-on, the two front carriages of the train also being derailed, there was a miraculous freedom from personal injuries, the passengers and train "bffiiials all escaping with nothing worse than a shaking. The cutting in question is a deep one, being a portion of the latest section of the grade easement works opened for use a few months ago. The express from Wellington to Auckland, which passes through Pukekohe at 2 p.m, found nothing amiss, but as the train from Rotorua, running 50 minutes behind the Main Trunk express, emerged from a curve, the driver (Mr A. McDonald) observed one side of the cutting slipping and about to fall on the line almost immediately in front of him With great presence of mind he applied the emergency brake, thereby lessening the speed of the train before it came in contact with the obstruction, and it is thanks to his quickness of action that a catastrophe was averted.

The whole of tho railway service has been disorganised and it is anticipated that it will take several days before the line can be re-opened for traffic. In the meantime some through communication is being afforded by a transfer of passengers from trains proceeding respectively to and from either end of the cutting. The difficulty, however, is that although large gangs of men are employed on the operations the removal of material is attended by the fall of additional earth and it is also no easy tack in the soft soil to replace the 70 ton engine on the rails. Owing to Xmas shopping many count:y residents, particularly ladies, were fulfilling missions in Auckland yesterday and were unable to return to their homes last night. The Thames express for Auckland reachei Pukekohe yesterday at 3 38 p.m. but was iLlajeJ at the station until past 7 pm. before it went forward for a transfer of its passengers at the scene of the obstruction.

Some surprise is expressed by the local public, who have ittiinate knowledge of the cutting and of the high embankment a little further to the north, that the rails on the old line of track were not allowed to remaiu instead of being so quickly removed. Had the old track been still available as an alternative route to the new section no disorganisation of traffic would have accrued. The penetrating nature of recent rains was of course exceptional, but "the man in the street" has always had forebodings that a wash-out would in bad weather cause a slip of the embankment or that there would be " a fall " in the cutting. The authorities, however, do not appear to have entertained any fear of such a happening. A PASSENGER'S STORY Mr W. L. Luxford, of Hamilton, (brother of Mr S. W. Luxford, of Pukekohe Hill), who was a passenger on the Eotorua express and who returned by the relief train to Pukekohe last uight instead of continuing his intended journey to Auckland, in tho course of a conversation with a "Times"'' representative related his experiences. He stated that ho was travelling in a first-class "smoker" immediately adjoining tho engine aDd the train was crowded. Uo at once noticed the brakes being vigoronsly applied. Thon came a crash and the passengers iu his compartment were thrown in all directions, but luckily sustained nothing worse than bruises. He fouud a temporary resting place on the floor of tho carriage and quite anticipated that the roof would fall in. How-' ever, that fear was fortunately not realised so as soon as he could after the train had come to a sudden stop he made his way out of the carriage. Men were awe-struck, women were hysterical, and children were loudly crying. Possessing an engine driver's certificate himself he had a fair knowledge of sp xd and ho reckoned that immediately prior to the application, of the brake the train was running at 35 miles an hour, and when the obstruction was encountered at from '2O to 2o miles an hour. He attributed the providential escape from a serious accident to the presence of mind of the engine drivor and to the fact that the engine was only met by soft matorial, which instead of actually blocking its progress lifted it bodily from the lino. When ho surveyed

the scene and he mounted the ten-

der of the engine f >r the purpose, he found that the engine was in a vertical position and that two carriages had left the rails. The platforms of the carriages were smashed to atoms and it was almost miraculous that the carriages had not been telescoped. Hid the slip struck the ceutie of the train the sequel would have been disastrous. He reckoned that the slip represented some 1500 cubic yards of material deposited on the line, equivalent to 3751) tons that would have to be shifted by the navvies, apart from the probability of resultant falls when the earth was removed. Pelting raid, Sir Luxford went on to say, was failing at the time of the slip and the passengers' discomfort was rendered mote acute by the fact that, as usual, the dining-car had been detached at Mercer. No food was available and everyone was hungry before the passengers off the Rotorua train were transferred to a train at the north end of the cutting, which left for Auckland about 8 p.m. In his own case he was without food until he returned to Pukekohe about 10 p.m. TEMPORARY ARRANGEMENTS

Two or three hundred workmen are today being busily employed in relaying the rails on the «id track that was recently discarded, the authorities evidently recognising that the clearing of the slip will be a most formidable task. Under the best of circumstances, however, there is little probability of the re-laying of the old track being finished in lime for a complete restoration of the railway service before the holidays. In the meantime some of the trains have been cancelled and others are running to either end of the cutting, the passengers having to walk a distance of about half a mile along the old track from one train to another. The Main Trunk expresses from the south are bdng brought as far as Pukekohe and there the passengers are being transferred to the Thames express, that has been waiting there since yesterday afternoon and which is being utilised, together with the undamaged carriages of the Rotorua express, to run to and from Pukekohe and the southern end of the Karaka cutting.