Heat-twisted rails send train flying

A freight train derailed yesterday between Bankside and Rolleston in Canterbury. Picture / Simon Baker

Buckled railway lines in Canterbury caused a freight train to derail yesterday, sending 20 wagons flying into a riverbed.

The driver, the only person aboard, was shaken but unhurt. The train was returning from Dunedin to Christchurch when it derailed about 3.15pm on a straight stretch just before the Selwyn River bridge, between Bankside and Rolleston.

"The tracks have buckled with the heat," said Dunsandel Deputy Chief Fire Officer Ian Chatterton.

"The tracks were quite horrendous, and how it didn't take the locomotive first I don't know. It was very fortunate."

The mercury soared into the high 20s in Canterbury yesterday with no wind to cool conditions.

Mr Chatterton said all but the train's first five and last two wagons fell about 6m into the river bed.

The Fire Service arrived soon after and extinguished a small fire on the bridge.

"It was the safest derailment you could probably have. Some carriages just buried themselves into the shingle." Most of the wagons were empty.

Mr Chatterton said it was lucky nothing in the dry riverbed had caught fire.

"It was pretty damn hot today. She would have been a major blaze if it had caught alight."

Lisa Gibbison, spokeswoman for Toll Holdings, which operates the rail system, said the company would investigate the derailment. The main trunk line would be closed until tomorrow.