BOILER EXPLOSION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 16, 17 December 1883, Page 2

BOILER EXPLOSION.

: f-r The Tim&rij Hey&\d give§ tl^e follqw; ' partioulars of the bursting; of tfee boiler of a locomotive the otuei' day at the railway station :— The engine, one of the j? class, was standing- attached to a special goods train ready (o start for Winscombe, when -without any warning at all the steam dome flew 40 or 50 feet into the air, followed by a column of steam and spray, which

Attitude of rtt least 100 ft* 'I he engine was standing on the ae*cond( or third Hue of rails, from the platform, on the edge of which the' dome fell, smashing three of the planks. The cloud of steam was wafted over the northern part of the town, and the sight of this, which could be seen all over Timaru, coupled with the loud report of the explosion, audible over a mile away, caused a good deal of excitement. The occurrence was so unprecedented here that people could not imagine what had" happened. A wish was made for the railway station, and m a few minutes several hundred people were collected there. Fortunately no one was hurt. The driver and stoker were both standing beside their engine, and must have narrowlr escaped a scalding. One of them got a slight sprinkling with 'tot- "water. Luckily there were but few 'people on the platform, and these were out of harm's way.' <'.'.>.'