ENGINE BLAMED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 November 1943, Page 3

ENGINE BLAMED

CHIEF ENGINEER’S THEORY AS TO CAUSE OF RAILWAY ACCIDENT FURTHER EVIDENCE AT INQUIRY ' (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. In evidence given yesterday at the continuation of the inquiry into the cause of the derailment of the 7.25 a.m. Upper Hutt-Wellington passenger train near Haywards on November 8, the Chief Engineer of Railways (Mr G. J. Bertinshaw) flatly rejected the suggestion that the condition of the track had anything to do with the accident and advanced a theory, that it was due to a failure, perhaps jamming, of the wheel compensating gear of the Wab locomotive, which he characterised as of poor design. He had no hesitation in coming to the decision that the August 20 derailment of the same train at the same spot was due to the defect in the engine casting, and formed the same opinion that the track had not caused the November 8 accident. It was obvious from the marks on the rail at the point of derailment that one wheel had mounted the rail at the high leg of the curve, had run along it for about seven feet, and then dropped off on the ballast. That was the cause of the accident. From his examination of the leading wheel of the trailing bogie, it was that wheel of the engine, running bunker first, which had mounted. There was nothing about the track to cause it, witness declared, but obviously it could not have mounted the rail unless it had been relieved of weight. After the second accident discrepancies from the normal had been found when the engines had been first weighed after the accident, and a second weighing was carried out after it had been taken out and run up and down. At the second weighing there was a different total weight of about five tons, and the weights on the individual axles did not agree. To his mind that explained the cause of the accident. He advanced the opinion that something had happened to the gear which compensated the weight upon the various wheels. The weights on the axles were thereby disturbed, and the weights on the leading bogie of the engine were relieved sufficiently to allow the wheel to climb the rail. The Wab engine, he said, had a bad reputation among track men for knocking the track about. After further evidence had been heard the chairman (Sir Francis Frazer), in intimating that the inquiry would be adjourned till December 13, said that in the meantime the board desired information on two points to be obtained for submission. The board would like an investigation carried out of the formation in the vicinity of the derailment, and it was not satisfied with the results of. the weighing of the locomotive. It would like further weighings carried out, and perhaps further tests in the presence of the two technical members.