THE " BLOCK " SYSTEM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4293, 13 December 1892, Page 2

THE " BLOCK " SYSTEM.

is A Visit to the Slip, I A Graphic Description, (By Our Special Reporter). o Featuerston, Monday. a I rode to Cress' Creek on Sunday 0 and walked up tho Incline as far as a tho long tunnel, l j Just as I arrived an engino camo | t out of the tunnel, followed by a brako A van and a tiuck. Tlio engine was n stopped a few yards away and the side of the truck let down, Tho contents ,f of the truck flowed out and Bbotdown t into the valley below. h After a few minutes rest I started a over tho hill in company with somo | young men who knew tho took, A ' e short distance from the top, on the j Wellington side, we camo upon two i, ohannels on tho left side of the small ' i, gully above tho tunnol mouth. Tho . t channels joined and presented tho /%■ 1 appeara'neo of a dried-up rivor bed, I strewn with great logs and boulders, • I We walked along the channel, which ' was in places several feotdeop., till we found ourselves above the mouth of the tunnel, For two or three chains from the tunnel mouth the cutting is filled with a mixture of logs, roots, I and earth, to the depth of tbrco feet or more, There were about a dozon men at 5 work clearing away the debris and j attaching the logs to the rubbish train 3 by means of chains. Tho logs were I dragged past the enginoshed and left there while tho earth, etc, in tho truoks was taken Borne distanoe down the lino and dumped out, Going down to tho station we passed a large gap where the stream " had burst into the outting. On enterI ing the cutting tho torrent had spread both up and down the line, Several large treeß and a semaphore situate ! a few yards from the tunnel bad > been washed fifteen chains (half jv ! way) through tho tunnel. Tho lojjs *T 1 caueed a dam, and tho liquid mud ' which flowed in reached the depth of • four feel, On the Summit side tho ' iron railings of another semapkoro near the station wero carried away. Tho main body of tho slip reached along the cutting about ten ohains, the averago depth being about eight foot, On the Summit Station tho mud and dirt almost covered tho rails. Having watched the operations onj that side, wo returned over tho hil',, On reaching tho other Bide, I gained pormißaion to go into tho tun.ool on tho brako van. Wc advauoed along tho tunnel till within thtfco chains of the Wellington end. Hero proereaa <K was stopped by the liquid mud, tthioli got gradually deaper towards tho end of tho tunnel, The engine stopped,, and eight or nine men, standing in, tho mud up to their knees, comnienrced to fill the truck with buckets;. Two or three feet further on was .'a person holding a light for tha others to work by, On the Incline side the men work A in twelve-hour shifts-ono shift from < two o'clock in the afternoon till two o'clock next morning, the other shift from two in the morning till two in the afternoon. If tho weather holds fine tho lino may possibly be.cleared for goods traffic by Tuesday morning, There are over sixty wagons of timber and wool now waiting at Cross' Creek, There aro altogether about forty men at the slip, working in. two' 'Shifts of twehty'onoh. "'. ' It will bo noticed by an official announcement in this issue that through communication has since, been restored.