Slip clear up begins after train's close call

A digger clears debris from around the locomotive that ran into the huge slip in the Manawatu Gorge. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Train wagons will haul away 10,000 cubic metres of dirt from the Manawatu Gorge to clear a massive landslide which covered railway tracks.

Work has already started to clear the line and retrieve a freight train which ploughed into the slip while carrying 400,000 litres of milk.

No one was hurt.

Ontrack spokeswoman Jenni Austin said yesterday that trains would travel back and forth with piles of dirt to help clear the tracks.

"Because the way the site is, it's quite a difficult site, we have to remove it by rail obviously," Ms Austin said.

"So we're having to use excavators to dig the dirt out, put it into the back of wagons and then the work train hauls those wagons out."

Ms Austin said it was hoped the work would be completed by the end of the week.

However, it could take up to at least the beginning of next week to clear the slip.

The train was nearly derailed after ploughing into the slip. It was travelling at 40km/h through the gorge towards Taranaki with milk from Hawkes Bay when the two drivers came across the slip about 5am.

Ms Austin said the driver, in his late 50s, and his co-driver saw the track disappear under the slip as they were travelling around a bend.

The locomotive ploughed into the slip turning on to one side but neither of the men were injured.

"They turned off the engine, put on the brake, got out and uncoupled the wagons. They were pretty shaken by it, it's probably not something you'd want to happen to you every day."

Ms Austin said the eight wagons of milk were removed by another locomotive on Saturday and had been taken by truck to their destinations.

"It's the main link between Palmerston North and the Hawkes Bay and at this time of year the main traffic is milk so we obviously want to have it reopened soon," she said.

"We have a road bridging operation in place for now."

The two drivers, who were offered counselling, have returned to work.

Ms Austin said that it was hard to tell whether the track buried by the slip was damaged and that an assessment would be made to see if repairs were needed before the tracks were reopened.