RUNAWAY VANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1938, Page 7

RUNAWAY VANS

PARI' OF RAILWAY TRAIN BREAKS AWAY SWIFT CAREER ON DOWNHILL SLOPE SOLE PASSENGER'S LUCKY ESCAPE TIMARU, April 8. Left stationary when an engine was shunting with the front part of the train at Winchester, the back part of a mixed train, which left Timaru at 11.36 o’clock this morning, rolled back down the slope to' Temuka, a distance of over three miles. Although the engine set off in pursuit, the rake of 18 trucks, two vans and a passenger carriage gathered speed down the incline and did not stop till it crashed into a samson post at Te-

muka station. The Winchester stationmaster had communicated with Temuka, where the desperate course was taken of diverting the runaway vehicles into the yard, where they ran through a loop and on to a blind siding alongside the main line. The impact with the stopblock telescoped some of the vehicles, these including the guard’s van, a carriage, a sheep truck and four other trucks. The wrecked vehicles were thrown fanwise on both sides of the track, the guard’s van being thrown across the main line and a box van being smashed to matchwood. The two rear vans of the rake continued on for their own length and come to a standstill lying on their sides. The bogies of two vans were completely torn off and had to be cleared from the main line by an engine. The north express was held up at Timaru from 1.46 p.m., the normal time of departure, until 3 o’clock, when the line was completely clear. A gang at work on a railway bridge was quickly brought to the scene of the accident to assist the maintenance gang, and the difficult work of clearing the main line to permit the passage of expresses proceeded at a remarkable pace. The only person on the runaway pari of the train was Lieutenant Fraser McIntosh, Christchurch, who was a passenger for Ashburton. He had a remarkable escape from injury or possible death, although he was in the carriage right until the impact with the post, escaping though a window of the overturned vehicle. Unaware that anything was amiss, Lieutenant Mclntosh read a book throughout the journey from Winchester to Temuka. His first indication that all was not well was the sudden impact of the train striking the buffer and the carriage pitching upward. He said he had been under the impression that for some reason the train was returning to Temuka.

The runaway part of the train weighing about 200 tons, moved off when the engine-driver and guard were engaged in shunting operations, and the momentum it gathered made all hope of arresting it without damage in vain. The Temuka stationmaster did all possible under the circumstances, as there were no facilities, for stopping the train except by the desperate method of letting it run into a samson post. If the guard had not been engaged in shunting, but had been on the runaway vehicle, he, no doubt, would have been able to apply the brakes, but as it was the lone passenger was blissfully unaware of anything being wrong.