RAILWAY ACCIDENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 July 1943, Page 3

RAILWAY ACCIDENT

♦ NINE TRUCKS LEAVE LINE. TRAFFIC HELD UP. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. Just as a goods train of about 15 wagons from Wellington was passing through the Makerua railway station, a little north of Shannon and 15 miles from Palmerston North early yesterday afternoon, a derailment occurred. Nine trucks left the line and some of them went down an embankment. The misI hap effectively blocked the Manawatu line at this point, but it was expected that it would be cleared for traffic this morning. No cause has yet been assigned for i the accident, in which no one was injured but four draught horses were killed when a pair of T wagons went off the line. The break-up in the train occurred immediately behind the engine but both the locomotive and the guard’s van remained on the line. Passengers who were travelling north by the 3 p.m. express and a following relief train from Wellington to Auckland were transhipped by bus between Shannon and Tokomaru, from which station the first express left for Auckland at 8.7 p.m. a little over three hours behind schedule. The south-bound New Plymouth express, whose passengers rere also transhipped, did not reach Wellington till about 11 p.m. Meanwhile, the north-bound Limited express was diverted to the Wairarapa line. No sleeper accommodation was available and the express was expected to be about four hours late in arriving at Auckland.