Rail Disaster Near Seddon

The driver of one of two diesel-electric locomotives hauling a goods-passenger train to Picton was killed and another railwaymen badly injured in a spectacular pile-up at the entrance to a tunnel between Seddon and Blenheim last month. It was the worst accident on the line for many years. The dead man was Erik Eggleston, aged 36, of Picton, a married man with three children. The cause of the accident is not yet known. Both the driver and his colleage, Mr Alan McNabb, who was badly injured, were trapped inside the cab of the leading locomotive after it careered through the tunnel. The second loco was derailed inside the tunnel and some of the waggons, a guards van and passenger coach telescoped at the entrance to the tunnel. Workers clearing the mail and freight in the mangled waggons, had the unenviable task of having to shift it up steep hillside.

×

 

• 

A view of the pile-up at the entrance to the tunnel and derailed waggons further back along the line

×

 

• 

Some idea of the tremendous impact at the mouth of the tunnel can be gauged from this pic taken from below the line by the tunnel