New Zealand -Timaru -1927 Timaru Railway Disaster, - original photo from old family album, - amateur photo #328383 Notes: Timaru was startled on Saturday morning, shortly before noon, by a report that the through express from Christchurch to Invercargill, had met with a serious mishap just after it had entered the northern end of the Timaru railway yard, and that the engine and five carriages had been derailed - a report which was soon found to be only too true. Fortunately the disaster was not attended by loss of life. A sensation of a kind which fortunately is rare in Timaru was occasioned here on Saturday morning at 11.35am, when the through express from Christchurch to Invercargill was drawing into Timaru railway station. At the time stated, passengers for South of Timaru and people who had assembled on the railway station for the purpose of meeting, were standing in the bright sunshine waiting with the customary air of expectancy for the train. "Here she comes," someone said, as the engine rounded the bend, and could be seen from the railway station. No sooner had the engine been sighted, however, than it was noticed that something was amiss. It was a big 30-tonne locomotive of the A B type, and it was soon discovered that it had left the rails and, ploughing its way along the railway track, was wobbling and swaying in a manner which betokened early disaster. The bogey wheels of the engine left the rails, or began to do so, just after the engine had passed under the bridge which spans the railway line almost opposite No 3 wharf, and as soon as this happened the whole train of 15 vehicles became unsteady and gave the passengers in the front cars a rocky ride. Onlookers were horrified, while those on board the train were in blissful ignorance of what was happening. The engine travelled some distance tearing up the track and it appeared as though it would run into the tall clay cliff which overlooks the harbour. It did run off, some of the passengers said, at a sharp angle when about forty yards west of Strathallan Street crossing, and would then have run into the cliff, but for the fact that as it left the main track the carriage next to the main engine, a first-class compartment, came into violent collision with a loaded wool waggon which was standing on the adjoining line. This deflected the engine and caused it to swerve around in the direction of the harbour when it spread itself across the several sets of rails there and toppled over on its side, the carriage next to it being heaped up, in a splintered condition, in the opposite direction. Had the engine run into the cliff it is possible that the carriages would have been telescoped, in which case loss of life must have been occasioned. But through the engine swerving back as it did, almost at right angles with the train, there was insufficient impact to cause serious damage to more than the tender and the first two or three carriages. http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/features/7290554/Big-train-off-rails-in-1927