A Narrow Escape.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 128, 26 March 1901, Page 3

A Narrow Escape.

It was rumoured on Friday, when the Abhburton school children were in Tiiu-u ti, on a holiday for the day, thai the special tram; iWbjca c.-nvy-'d ih-yn had n irrowly esc-fiicd - meeting with what might have proved a very serious disaster.

From enquiries made it his been ascertained that the rumour had some foundation in fact, and that th- spec al fcr in which bn-ught the people to Timara had to b; stoppe 1 near Temuka to ensure the safety of those on b >a d. The special from Ashburton arrive 1 in Timiru at 20 minu es to 11 on Friday morning.nSoine repairs of a substantial na ure aribeieg eff uted to the T. muka railway fridge, over which both tr ains had to pa*s, |nd the repairs nec-ssitated ihe ~T«jose»'ing of some of the priueipal UavYand supports >f the b idge Thib: ing so, the workmen engag- d had nude everything secure for the us. al 10 o’clock train top*sS over, but not having been made aware of the fact, that a second train (the special from Ashburton) would be following, they had loosened the stays of the bridge again after the ordinary tra n t ad pa-sed ovqr, tor the purpose of proceeding properly with the wrk Sudd -uly they heard a shrdl whistle, and, 1 oking northwards ,p the line, saw some smoke, and what they took to bo ». train corain.f, and knowing that the bridge was not in a fit sta e for the train to pass over, and also that it would be impossible to make it so before the train ivanhed them, they proceeded with all hosts to tike mea aues to stop it, amt uiqc -fded in b inging i‘ to a stands'dl soul i little distance up the line. The men at once set vigorously to work, and made the bridge sudiciently strong to cany the train over in safety. . | The train was a long one, consisting! of 16 carriages, and ha 1 about 800 souls ' ou board,»o that hi i a calamity oocu-red it wopld have baen one of no trivial n ituriP. If the workers on the hri ige had not providentially been able to stop it, and luckily kept their wits about them, and acted promptly, the train with its living freight must have cra-hed throughintother verbed Alargenu nber of passengers would have been killed and injured, tad the men engaged repairing umierneath the bridge could scarcely have escaped.