TRAIN DERAILED.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1922, Page 4

TRAIN DERAILED.

THE MAIN TRUNK EXPRESS. NO ONE INJURED. ENGINE STRIKES CATTLE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The south-bound Main Trunk express was derailed near Drury at eight o’clock to-night, narrowly escaping a serious disaster. It crashed into a group of straying cattle near a curved embankment and the engine jumped, the points on to a siding. A tender, two postal vans and one passenger car, which -was unoccupied, were thrown on to the side line. The engine-driver, A. Blackwell, on feeling the bump at once applied the brake, and though rhe en* gine rocked, fearfully no vehicle overturned, though the tender almost didso. It wsas badly smashed, the bogey being buried to a depth of about four feet. The engine was also very much damaged. The first postal van, in which, ttiere was no occupant, was wrecked, and the second postal van, in which three men were engaged, had the windows broken, the men receiving 'bad shocks and mails and loose letters being thrown about. The passenger coach next to the unoccupied one was slightly damaged, the door being splintered, but nobody wus injured. ° «« A relief train from Mercer arrived a 4 ' ' 11 p.m. to convey the passengers to Frankton, whence another train will convey them south.