THE MAIN TRUNK DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1919, Page 5

THE MAIN TRUNK DISASTER.

TEST OF THE WESTINGHDU6E BRAKE. Taihape, May 20. Efforts are being made to elucidate, if possible, the mystery surrounding the train disaster on the Main Tunk line. Experts fail to account for the failure of the air brakes. At the request of the Taihape railway employees the Westinghouse brake on the derailed engine was sealed by the coroner soon after the accident. The brake was brought into Taihape and tested in the presence of departmental officials, the coroner, and representatives of the men. The test was carried out under the supervision of Mr. Pearson, chief mechanical engineer, and the result of the test was to make the failure of the brakes on the night of the accident more inexplicable than ever. A running test is to be made under somewhat similar conditions to those obtaining when the accident occurred. The brake is to be applied to a train running between Ohakune and Taihape, which will travel the same grades. Mr. Pearson expressed his intention to travel on the engino making the test.

In a Press Association message it was stated that the authorities cannot tinderstand the failure of the brakes which resulted in the train smash near Taihape. A Christchurch resident lias stated to a representative of the Sun that he was in an accident near Pietermaritzburg, Natal, a few years ago, when a train ran away on a fairly steep incline. It was afterwards proved that when coupling up the train a railway employee had accidentally allowed a piece of waste he was carrying to .tret into the -flexible brake piping, with the result that, although the indicator on the engine showed that there was ample brake-power, this only extended to one or two carriages, and when the incline was reached it was found to be insufficient to stop the train.