RAILCAR MISHAP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1938, Page 9

RAILCAR MISHAP

COW KILLED AT PAHIATUA. When the railcar from Masterton to Woodville arrived from Pahiatua on Tuesday night the usual shrill blast of the horn was conspicuously absent, this all-important attachment having been damaged as a result of a collision with a cow in the station yard at Paliiatua. The cow was killed. The incident took place a few minutes after seven o’clock just as the railcar was entering the station yard preparatory to stopping at the Pahiatua station a few yards further on. The cow was one of a mob that had been driven to the station to be trucked away and had jumped out of the enclosure into the yard. Every effort was made to get the beast back again before the railcar pulled in but the railcar struck the cow which was standing directly in its path. A violent jolt was experienced by those inside as the front four wheel bogie ploughed over the animal and fortunately came down squarely on the rails again. The raicar was travelling at about five or six miles an hour at the time and had the leading bogie' slewed the railcar would have been derailed.

The journey was resumed shortly afterward, none of the passengers being any the worse for the incident which might easily have had more serious consequences.