Lucky escape as train hits chipper

CRUNCH: Firemen beside the remains of a wood chipper, struck by a goods train near Lincoln Rd, Carterton.

Railway landscape contractors tried frantically to free their woodchipper from rail tracks before it was wiped out by a goods train just after noon yesterday.

The chipper, being used by Treescape NZ contractors, became stuck on the tracks near Lincoln Rd in Carterton during a pruning operation.

The contractors were moving the machine to tend to trees on the other side of the tracks when things went wrong, said Carterton chief fire officer Wayne Robinson.

A JNL log train travelling south came around the bend when contractors realised it was either them or the chipper, he said. "They hadn't been able to get it off so they left it there."

He said the train did not knock the chipper aside, but kept smashing it forward on the tracks until it eventually lodged partly under the locomotive's guard.

The machine was "pretty destroyed" while the train received superficial damage, he said.

Mr Robinson said the contractors were "very, very lucky".

Police, ambulance and three fire trucks were called to the scene. Nobody was injured.

Tranz Metro said it was investigating the incident.

The Wairarapa commuter train was disrupted and the 3.40pm southbound service was replaced by bus between Featherston and Masterton.