Hyde railway disaster
Encyclopedia
The Hyde railway disaster occurred on 4 June 1943 near the small settlement of Hyde, New Zealand
on a bend of the Otago Central Railway. At the time, it was New Zealand's worst railway accident; of the 113 passengers on board, 21 were killed and a further 47 were injured. But just over ten years later, the Tangiwai disaster
took 151 lives on 24 December 1953. The Hyde disaster remains as the second worst railway accident in New Zealand's history.
to Dunedin
. In 1936, a year-round daily passenger express train was introduced, replacing a thrice weekly express that had been augmented by slow mixed train
s. This service left Cromwell at 9am and reached Dunedin at 5:20pm; in 1937, the schedule was accelerated by half an hour and it was this timetable that was in force on 4 June 1943. The train was hauled by a steam locomotive
, AB
782, and consisted of seven passenger carriages, a guard's van and two wagons of time-sensitive freight. The day was a Friday and it was to be followed by the Queen's Birthday long weekend
, and this boosted patronage to 113, with many passengers travelling to the Winter Show in Dunedin or horse races in Wingatui
.
Prior to the accident, some passengers became concerned about their safety. Regular travellers were aware that the train was travelling at excessive speed and one who had moved from his seat to stand with friends in another carriage was forced to return to his seat as the movement of the train made it uncomfortable to stand. In the minutes immediately preceding the accident, luggage and parcels fell from racks above the seats.
burst, extinguishing the fire in the firebox but severely scalding the fireman. The carriages piled up around it; all seven passenger carriages had left the tracks, with the second overturning and coming to rest in front of the locomotive while four of the other carriages telescoped together. The force of the crash was such that the undercarriage of one was twisted into the form of a letter "S" and one passenger who survived was thrown out of their carriage, struck the side of the cutting, and bounced back in through another window. The guards van and two goods wagons at the rear failed to derail. Bits of the train were scattered throughout the surrounding farmland and the cutting contained a mass of splintered wood, bent steel, and broken seats; an attending doctor described it as resembling "the result of a bomb blast".
Due to the remote location, it took approximately ninety minutes for rescuers to arrive. Reports reached Middlemarch
of an accident where there "were possibly a few injuries" and medical personnel did not initially travel in a hurry to the disaster, but upon catching sight of the disaster from a rise in the road half a mile away, they proceeded swiftly. In the intervening time, the injured were tended by the passengers from the relatively undamaged rear carriages and by local farmer Pat Kinney who owned the property through which the cutting ran; his son Frank had boarded the train at its last stop in Hyde and was one of the deceased. Some passengers were trapped in the wreckage for several hours and medical personnel - with the assistance of railway maintenance staff - worked until it was too dark to see.
conditions and little news was published of the disaster. Relatives of the victims did not receive news of their loss until the next day.
A board of inquiry was established to investigate the crash. Based on the state of the wreckage, it found that the train had to be travelling in excess of 70 miles per hour (31.3 m/s) on a curve with a speed limit of 30 miles per hour (13.4 m/s) and had thus derailed due to the operation of centrifugal force. It found that the judgement of the driver, 55 year old John Corcoran, was markedly impaired as he had been drunk, and thus charged him with serious dereliction of duty. He was tried in the Dunedin Supreme Court with manslaughter, found guilty, and sentenced to three years' jail. The train's guard was reprimanded for not taking action when he became aware of the train's excessive speed, but he was not criminally prosecuted.
In the years after the disaster, it had little legacy as it was overshadowed by World War II. When a memorial was established to victims of the Tangiwai disaster decades later, relatives of Hyde disaster victims began to work for their own memorial, led by Molly Winter and Elizabeth Coleman. In August 1990, a committee was formed to erect a monument, a 2.5 m high cairn
, at an easily accessible site near the location of the disaster. The cutting of the disaster itself can also be walked, as the Otago Central Railway closed on 30 April 1990 and has been converted into the Otago Central Rail Trail
.
The disaster was the only significant accident involving passengers that occurred on the Otago Central Railway between the start of construction in 1877 and closure.
Hyde, New Zealand
Hyde is a locality in Otago, New Zealand, located in the Strath-Taieri. It is close to the northern end of the Rock and Pillar Range on State Highway 87 between Middlemarch and Ranfurly....
on a bend of the Otago Central Railway. At the time, it was New Zealand's worst railway accident; of the 113 passengers on board, 21 were killed and a further 47 were injured. But just over ten years later, the Tangiwai disaster
Tangiwai disaster
The Tangiwai disaster on 24 December 1953 was the worst rail accident in New Zealand history. An 11-carriage overnight express from Wellington to Auckland fell into the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai, ten kilometres west of Waiouru. The bridge carrying the North Island Main Trunk Railway over the...
took 151 lives on 24 December 1953. The Hyde disaster remains as the second worst railway accident in New Zealand's history.
Background
The Hyde disaster involved the daily passenger express train from CromwellCromwell, New Zealand
Cromwell is a town in Central Otago in the Otago region of New Zealand.It is situated between State Highway 6 and State Highway 8 leading to the Lindis Pass, 75 km northeast, and Alexandra, 33 km south. The road to Alexandra winds through the Cromwell Gorge...
to Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
. In 1936, a year-round daily passenger express train was introduced, replacing a thrice weekly express that had been augmented by slow mixed train
Mixed train
A mixed train is a train that hauls both passenger and freight cars or wagons. In the early days of railways they were quite common, but by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. As the trains provided passengers with very slow service, mixed trains have...
s. This service left Cromwell at 9am and reached Dunedin at 5:20pm; in 1937, the schedule was accelerated by half an hour and it was this timetable that was in force on 4 June 1943. The train was hauled by a steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
, AB
NZR Ab class
The NZR AB class was a class of 4-6-2 Pacific tender steam locomotive that operated on New Zealand's national railway system. Originally an improvement on the 1906 A class, 141 were built between 1915 and 1927 by NZR's Addington Workshops, A & G Price Limited of Thames, New Zealand, and North...
782, and consisted of seven passenger carriages, a guard's van and two wagons of time-sensitive freight. The day was a Friday and it was to be followed by the Queen's Birthday long weekend
Queen's Official Birthday
The Queen's Official Birthday is the selected day on which the birthday of the monarch of Commonwealth realms is officially celebrated in Commonwealth countries and in Fiji, which is now a republic. It is an invention of the early 20th century...
, and this boosted patronage to 113, with many passengers travelling to the Winter Show in Dunedin or horse races in Wingatui
Wingatui
Wingatui is a small settlement almost 15 kilometres west of Dunedin, and two kilometres east of Mosgiel. It has become a suburb of Mosgiel, but continues to maintain its own unique identity and heritage....
.
Prior to the accident, some passengers became concerned about their safety. Regular travellers were aware that the train was travelling at excessive speed and one who had moved from his seat to stand with friends in another carriage was forced to return to his seat as the movement of the train made it uncomfortable to stand. In the minutes immediately preceding the accident, luggage and parcels fell from racks above the seats.
Accident
The disaster occurred at 1:45pm when the express failed to negotiate a 183 m radius curve in a deep cutting known locally as Straw Cutting, shortly after crossing the Six Mile Creek between Hyde and Rock and Pillar. The train derailed, with the engine coming to rest against the side of the cutting 60 m from where it derailed; the boilerBoiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
burst, extinguishing the fire in the firebox but severely scalding the fireman. The carriages piled up around it; all seven passenger carriages had left the tracks, with the second overturning and coming to rest in front of the locomotive while four of the other carriages telescoped together. The force of the crash was such that the undercarriage of one was twisted into the form of a letter "S" and one passenger who survived was thrown out of their carriage, struck the side of the cutting, and bounced back in through another window. The guards van and two goods wagons at the rear failed to derail. Bits of the train were scattered throughout the surrounding farmland and the cutting contained a mass of splintered wood, bent steel, and broken seats; an attending doctor described it as resembling "the result of a bomb blast".
Due to the remote location, it took approximately ninety minutes for rescuers to arrive. Reports reached Middlemarch
Middlemarch, New Zealand
Middlemarch is a small town within the limits of Dunedin city in New Zealand with 300 inhabitants. It lies some 80km to the west of the city centre, at the foot of the Rock and Pillar Range of hills in the broad Strath-Taieri valley, through which flows the middle reaches of the Taieri...
of an accident where there "were possibly a few injuries" and medical personnel did not initially travel in a hurry to the disaster, but upon catching sight of the disaster from a rise in the road half a mile away, they proceeded swiftly. In the intervening time, the injured were tended by the passengers from the relatively undamaged rear carriages and by local farmer Pat Kinney who owned the property through which the cutting ran; his son Frank had boarded the train at its last stop in Hyde and was one of the deceased. Some passengers were trapped in the wreckage for several hours and medical personnel - with the assistance of railway maintenance staff - worked until it was too dark to see.
Casualties
Those killed were:
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Aftermath
The isolation of the disaster site was compounded by wartimeWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
conditions and little news was published of the disaster. Relatives of the victims did not receive news of their loss until the next day.
A board of inquiry was established to investigate the crash. Based on the state of the wreckage, it found that the train had to be travelling in excess of 70 miles per hour (31.3 m/s) on a curve with a speed limit of 30 miles per hour (13.4 m/s) and had thus derailed due to the operation of centrifugal force. It found that the judgement of the driver, 55 year old John Corcoran, was markedly impaired as he had been drunk, and thus charged him with serious dereliction of duty. He was tried in the Dunedin Supreme Court with manslaughter, found guilty, and sentenced to three years' jail. The train's guard was reprimanded for not taking action when he became aware of the train's excessive speed, but he was not criminally prosecuted.
In the years after the disaster, it had little legacy as it was overshadowed by World War II. When a memorial was established to victims of the Tangiwai disaster decades later, relatives of Hyde disaster victims began to work for their own memorial, led by Molly Winter and Elizabeth Coleman. In August 1990, a committee was formed to erect a monument, a 2.5 m high cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
, at an easily accessible site near the location of the disaster. The cutting of the disaster itself can also be walked, as the Otago Central Railway closed on 30 April 1990 and has been converted into the Otago Central Rail Trail
Otago Central Rail Trail
The Otago Central Rail Trail is a 150-kilometre walking, cycling and horse riding track in the South Island of New Zealand. It runs in an arc between Middlemarch and Clyde, along the route of the former Otago Central Railway...
.
The disaster was the only significant accident involving passengers that occurred on the Otago Central Railway between the start of construction in 1877 and closure.