RO-2005-125

On Friday 28 October 2005, at about 1547, Taieri Gorge Railway passenger Train 1910, travelling from Middlemarch to Dunedin with a crew of 4 and 21 passengers, parted between the leading passenger car XPC412 and passenger car XPC562 as the train approached Dunedin Station.

After the train parted, the brakes applied automatically and the 2 sections of the train stopped about
40 metres (m) apart.

The train parting resulted from the catastrophic failure of the buffer at a flash butt weld that connected the cast coupler head and forged tail.

There were no injuries to passengers or crew.

The safety issues included:

• the identification and tracking of buffer components
• the non-visual inspection of buffer components.

In view of the safety actions taken by Taieri Gorge Railway Limited, no safety recommendations have been made to the operator. One safety recommendation has been made to the Director, Land Transport New Zealand to distribute this report to all heritage operators with gangway-connected rolling stock, and direct all mainline heritage operators to crack test non-alliance buffers on all their operational passenger carriages and guards’ vans