A CATASTROPHE AVERTED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3199, 21 April 1911, Page 4

A CATASTROPHE AVERTED.

THE MAIN NORTH TRUNK SEN-

SATION.

HOW MR CLAUDE PREVENTED A

COLLISION

[.SPECIAL TO TIMES .2 AUCKLAND, April 20. In the course of a conversation with, a press representative this morning Mr. Claude told an interesting story in reference to the narrowly averted accident to the main trunk express on 'Monday evening Snortly before teno’clock -while writing in his office at Westfield, which is near the railway sidnig, he heard three distress whistles which in the railway service denote danger and the need for putting brakes on. The sky was overcast and cloudy, tiie moon being quite hidden, but it did' not take Mr. Claude long to grasp the position. His work at the saleyards brings him into daily contact with stock trucking operations at the Westfield siding: and one glance sufficed to show that two trains were running towards each other on the one line. At AY estfield there arc two down grades, one from Otahuhu and one from Penrose, and down both wore coming brightly lit passenger trains. The express was travelling at 20 miles an hour and the runaway at about eight miles an hour. Unless something happened to prevent a* collision, the two trains would meet in the vicinity of the city abbatoir gate. At this time the express was less than half a mile away, and the untended passenger cars only 100. yards away, from where Mr. Claude'stood. PROMPTNESS AND PRESENCE OF MIND. With remarkable presence of mind Mr. Claude ran from his office on to the railroad track and then jumped on to the van as the runaway cars Hashed past, his Knowledge of the stock trucking business standing him ingood stead. He at once applied the A\ estinghouse brake and brought the cars to a standstill. Jumping out again he seized one of the flaring red lights off the back of the van, and rushing up to the windows of the other carriages, told two passengers who were on board, of their danger. Their surprise was genuine. The two travellers in question had taken tickets for Auckland, and had not had the slightest idea that- there \yas no engine on the train, but believ- ; &d that they were making the ordinary .i uruey ba<s to tne city. Speedily disillusioned in this point, they lest no time in' quitting thei rseats. Meantime Air. Claude had run on about- 20 yards ahead, flashing the red light as he ran, and the express was brought to a standstill within two chains of the stationary carriages. COLLISION AVERTED BY TWO MINUTES.

Without Air. Claude’s intervention another two minutes would have sufficed to bring about a collision: and even had the driver of the express been fortunate enough to have seen his danger and slop his train, there would still have been nothing to prevent the runaway cars crashing into the express, whether that- train happened to be travelling or stationary. Only Air Claude's prompt, action averted that accident. Had the two trains been in motion and collided at this point, there was a fairly steep embankment on one side, over which they would probably have toppled, and a big railway smash would have had to be’ recorded.

“I have no wish to appear prominently before the public in regard to this incident/'’ modestly remarked Mr Claude, “but I am convinced that- had I not been in the vicinity of Westfield Siding and luckily possessed of a knowledge of how to work the Westinghouse brake there would certainly have been a terrible accident.”