Ready, Aye, Ready!

Immediately after an accident in this district, advice of what has occurred is flashed to Wellington, the District Engineer is notified and the machinery of the Department is set in motion. Where an ordinary railway line is affected, the Inspector of Permanent Way takes over, and if the accident concerns a bridge, then the Bridge Foreman is the man of the hour. A breakdown gang, composed of men from the workshops and other sources, is at once dispatched, and they set off at full speed with a fully-equipped train. If the accident is nearer Wanganui, then a breakdown train is sent from there.

Back in the central control office at Wellington the operator of the wonderful selective telephone instrument clears the way for them. By means of his machine, which is in constant, independent and simultaneous touch with all stations along the line, he directs that any trains between Wellington and the scene of the accident are to allow the breakdown train through. The operator also advises certain stations to obtain a quota of gangers, plate-layers and workmen, who are to be ready to join the breakdown train as it passes. In addition, he notifies gangers in close proximity to the accident to proceed independently to the scene of the trouble. This they do, taking their trolleys, and as there are a ganger and a team of four, five or six men on every seven miles of railway line in New Zealand, it is not long before a good number are scurrying along the rails.