Travelling at a terrific speed, thirteen trucks and a guard's van, which had broken away from a goods train travelling to Bendigo, dashed back down the slope through Macedon station, and collided with an oncoming goods train about a mile and a half on the Melbourne side of Macedon at 2 o'clock on the morning of Feb. 4. The trucks were heavily laden, one with bricks and the other with coal. The guard, who jumped from the van before the impact, was killed, and his body was found 185 yards from the wreckage. The crew of the second train were injured.
The casualties were:
EVANS, Thomas Edward, aged 62 rears, railway guard, 12 High street, North Melbourne.
KELLAM, George, engine-driver, 22 Clark street, Port Melbourne; shock and abrasions.
CHANDLER, Phillip, fireman, 136 Roden street, West Melbourne; shock and abrasions.
HOLBERY, William, railway guard, shock, and minor injuries to head.
The train from which the trucks and van separated was the "8.15 through" Bendigo goods tram, which left Spencer street station on Friday night. It consisted of 45 vehicles, hauled by two engines, one of the "A2" and one of the "DD" class, drawing a load of 624 tons. The drives were T. Garland on the first engine, and T. Monoghan on the second, with T. Lalor and C. Straughair as firemen. Evans was guard in charge of the train. After leaving Macedon at three minutes past 1 o'clock the engines evidently had difficulty in crossing the Macedon range, because half an hour later the train had only reached the vicinity of the New Chum Bridge, about one mile and a half on the Bendigo side of Macedon station. It is stated that the drivers when within about half a mile of the top of the range, pulled up to get more steam to carry the train over the top. The extra strain on the couplings when they restarted must have been too great, and the last 13 trucks and the guard's van broke away. There is a grade of I in 50 between Gisborne and Woodend, about the steepest on the line to Bendigo, and, gathering speed at they went the detached trucks dashed through Macedon station at a terrific speed.
"It passed through here at about 47 minutes past 1 o'clock with a mighty roar and as quick as a flash of lightning," the stationmaster at Macedon (Mr J. Pennington) said on February 4. I cannot get the noise out of my ears. For a moment I heard the agonised cries of someone on the train. I rushed from the office to the platform but could see nothing. I did not suspect anything going towards Melbourne on the "down" line and thought something might have happened to the crew of a train coming from Bendigo. There was no time to think. I went to ring up the stations on either side and almost immediately there came a thundering crash from the direction of Gisborne."
With the exception of damage to the engine, the second train, which consisted of 41 empty trucks, did not suffer much, the engine and the three trucks immediately behind were derailed, but were able to return to Gisborne. The driver (G. Kellam) and the fireman (P. Chandler) state that they heard the roar of the approaching runaway but did not take much notice, thinking it was a train coming on the "up" line. The red light on the van was taken for the semaphore at Macedon. They saw the light for only a second, and then came the awful crash.
As soon as news of the accident was received in Melbourne the metropolitan rolling stock superintendent (Mr W. H. Jones) and a staff of men were despatched with the breakdown train to the scene. At daybreak, work was commenced to clear the line, and with the steam crane and two A2 class engines, the debris was moved from the tracks.
Railway officials were reticent concerning the cause of the breakaway, but it is thought that the nut might have broken off the drawbar of the coupling. This would release the drawbar and disengage the trucks behind. The fact that this had happened would be indicated on the pressure gauge in the engine, and the air brake would act automatically. It was stated that the brakes should also have been automatically applied to the disengaged portion of the train, ''but only for a time."
This is the third case on the Victorian railways in three weeks in which the couplings on goods trains have snapped under the strain of heavy loading. It would appear that either the trains, which are loaded up to 350 tons, consist of too many trucks for the make and style of coupling fitted, or that something is radically wrong with the inspection of the trucks before the train is "made up." In either case public safety demands that a special inquiry be made by the commissioners.