Train Wrecks Steam-Roller At Mount Albert Crossing

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 40, 10 May 1927, Page 9

Train Wrecks Steam-Roller At Mount Albert Crossing

A STARTLING ACCIDENT

3 s * eam p oller weighing 15 tons disputed possession of the Hflht-of-way of a 95 ton A.B. loco motive at the Gladstone Road railit. wr4rof Sl ?^ , u M ° Unt A,bert » this morning, the smaller fellow got the worst of the encounter.

The accident, which is probably unique in the history of the New Zealand railways, occurred at 9.10 a.m. when the 8.40 a.m. AucklandvVhangarei express collided with a steam-roiier driven by H. Evans, of 60 Bellevue Road, Mount Eden, and owned by H. Rotherey, contractor, of Kohimarama.

The ponderous macehine had got halfway across the railway track when suddenly the express swung round a. bend in the line, and struck the slowly-moving vehicle abaft the right side wheel, carrying the massive roller some four yards along the line, where it came to rest over the tracks. By remarkable good fortune, the driver of the roller escaped uninjured, though his machine was considerably damaged. The weighty front roller was torn from the frames, and deposited about five yards from

the railroad, while general structural injury was received. Strangely, the locomotive came through the encounter with only a slig*htly bent front footplate and scarred cowcatcher, sustaining no mechanical injury whatever. A passenger on the train said he felt no shock from the impact, and his first intimation of anything amiss was the stopping of the train. As a result of the accident, all traffic on the north line was held up for 70 minutes while the obstruction was hauled clear of the track with the assistance of a traction engine brought from town. The crossing is not considered dangerous, as there is a clear view of the road from the line each way for a distance of 100 yards, and how the accident occurred is beyond conjecture.