THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT WELLINGTON.

Temuka Leader, Issue 291, 16 September 1880, Page 2

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT WELLINGTON.

We are indebted to the Otago Daily Times for the following : Wbllingttn, Sept. 13.

The following later and fuller particulars about the Rimutaka railway catastrophe are given to-day by the Post's special reporter. The actual occurcance is thus described;—The order of the train as it started up the incline was thus :—sFirst, two passenger carriages j then, guard’s Vf ; n (Osborne he ng the guard in charge); next, the Fell engine ; then two goods waggons, full of timber, produce, &c.; and lastly, the Fell brake van, under the charge of the regular incline guard, Berry. The train was ascending the incline of 1 in 15, in the order above described, and was proceeding at the usual slow speed of about five miles an hour, when, on emerging from a deep rocky cutting, and on ent V - J ing an open embankment, a fhriuw* I gust of wind from the right hand atHlok the leading carriage broadside mi Wftk j terrific torce, instantly hurling it otY 'tk’e ■

■ai's on to its le t side, t-.king he second and the brake Phn combined i fleet of the wind fofce. lud th vii>l<n concussion against the -- ) lulders ui th. side id ■ itie ine, was to start the upper portion of rhe first carriage from the Yame and flooring,'and tl;° breach nade, the whole body of the vehicle wan ' lashed to .pi- ces with extract dinary rapidity, the debris, together with the passengers, being whirled down the steep declivity. The carrier, frame, and wheels of the dismantled cafU'ge were also thrown over the side of tha.embankment and dragged down, also the second carriage and the brake van—these,■'feangv ing down the bank at right anglekjto the engine. H ppily the couplings all held firm, and the Fell engine remained an* chored, as it.were, to the high middle rail, with the four horizontal steel wheels gripped es if in a vyce u ider the pres* sure of the powerful engine brake, which is so important a feature iu the Fell system, Had anything given way—engine, or breaks, or couplings—the whole mass, including the engine, which weighs nearly 33 tens, and the three vehicles suspended froiq it, almost in mid air, must have fallen to the foot of the embankment. in which case it would have been, humanly speaking, impossible that a single soul could .have escaped ' with life. But the ponderous locomotive fortunately he.d firm, although it swayed to and fro under the united strain of the hurricane an I the three suspended carriages, to which shortly a still greater pull was added. Berry, the guard in charge of the Fell braise van, ' seeing the nature of the mishap, and that the engine could not be moved, promptly,and with commendable presence of mind, detached his van and ran down the incline by the momentum to seek assistance at Cross Creek, station. He did not imagine it possible for the two goods waggons at the rear of the engine also to be blown over, yet this actually hapu ned almost immediately the Fell brake van was taken off ; and the twa goods waggons being held only at one end by the engine, they too were thrown off the rails and partly over the side of the bank by the irresistible fury*)f the wi: d, thus leaving the engine alone on, ; j the rail, with these vehicles suspended I over the edge of the bank at one end and two at the other. It was w< nderful that the engine was able to support such a tremendous pull without capsizing, and so carrying death and destruction i to the struggling mass of human beinga A below but so it providently happened.”