LOCOMOTIVE BOLTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1921, Page 12

LOCOMOTIVE BOLTS.

EX TR AORD INA RY ACCI DENT. WILD DASH INTO STATION. An extraordinary accident is reported from Victoria. A light engine, weighing about 100 tons, had been sent from Ballarat to Melbourne for repairs, and. with two men aboard, was near a station named Bacchus Marsh, when something appeared to go wrong with the undergear. The engine-driver pulled up the locomotive, and he and his mate got out to carry out an inspection. They were on a steep grade—about .1

in 40—and the slope ended in Bacchus Marsh station, nearly two miles away. The two men were lying under the engine, doing something Io the uudergear, when, without warning, the huge bulk began to move. The brake< must have slipped off completely, because the engine got up speed quickly. Both mon rolled from underneath hurriedly, and the driver jumped up and. tried to catch up to the engine. But, although he raced along for some distance, the engine outpaced him easily, and dashed off down the slope.

The recorder showed afterwards that in rushing down the slope the engine attained a speed of 75 r miles an hour. She was going at fully 60 miles an hour when she approached Bacchus Marsh. The detached locomotive of a goods train was standing beside the station platform, right in the line of'the bolt-

ing engine. There were two aboard, and (he driver saw the runaway coming. He shouted a warning, and tried to start up his engine on the reverse, but before the locomotive had even begun to move backwards the runaway was up to them. The driver next jumped clear, just in time, but the fireman was too slow and was- caught. The engines met head on, with an incredible crash. The goods engine was lifted completely into the air and hurled back fully 60ft. Two buffers, weighing a hundredweight or more, were, thrown over the station, and there was a shower of coal. The fireman was buried in coal, and severely shaken, but was not seriously hurl. ’Die track was torn up for a considerable distance, and both engines were almost completely wrecked. The unhappy driver -ind fireman came panting in lialf an hour later, to find their worst fears realised.