John Williams, Treasures of Nhill & District Facebook page, 13 January 2024, Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times
“Hang on, we are going to crash, look out”, was the dramatic warning given to the driver of the second engine of the Adelaide-bound Express a few seconds before one of the biggest railway smashes in the history of Victoria.
On the foggy night of September 7th 1951, Kaniva and Nhill fire brigades rushed to a reported train wreck involving two Expresses at Serviceton, just near the South Australian border.
The Melbourne and Adelaide Overland trains had crashed head-on at the edge of the Serviceton station.
First, a word about the choice of words at that point in history:
In that era, the Inter-city passenger trains were more commonly referred to as the Adelaide and Melbourne Express as the “Overland” label hadn’t really caught on and was hardly used at all in all press reports, including the Nhill Free Press.
This is despite the two-way service being officially named “Overland” in 1936. Prior to that it was just referred to as “the Express” and originally the “Intercolonial Express” from 1837.
Locals in the 1950s and even onwards often referred to the Overland as either the Melbourne or Adelaide Express.
And one must never call it the “Overlander”, or that could lead to a stern rebuff from train buffs who cringe at the term.
Miles out from Serviceton, the volunteer brigades could see flames and smoke belching some 200 feet into the hazy night sky.
The raging fire came from the tanks of four mangled oil-fired steam locomotives, but there was little the local firefighters could do, not being equipped to fight such fires.
The oil finally burned itself out in 3 hours with the firefighters’ content with preventing its spread to carriages and grassland.
The previous oil fire faced by Nhill firemen was in 1949 when the storage tanks at the powerhouse caught fire. Foam to fight the fire had to be transported from Horsham.
On that fateful September night, just before 3am, the Adelaide bound train had been travelling at 55mph (90kph) shortly before the emergency brakes were applied, but it was too late and the express ploughed head-on into the stationary Melbourne bound train.
The train at the station had earlier arrived from Adelaide 80 minutes late. The South Australian engines had been replaced with two from Victoria ready to continue to Melbourne. Normally, the east and west-bound Overlands would pass at Diapur.
In the fog, the driver of the moving train, Allan Hannon of Dimboola, had failed to see the first of two stop signals located some distance out from the station, and regardless of the brakes being applied at the final signal, the speed was still high resulting in a crash of great force.
Despite the brunt of that sudden impact, six hundred passengers had amazing escapes from death or serious injury.
The locomotive crews leapt from their cabins, but one of the firemen, Keith Hosking of Dimboola, was crushed to death as his engine was hurled to its side beside the line.
At the receiving end of this disaster and just prior to impact, the crews of the two locomotives of the stationary Melbourne Express heard the ominous onrush of another train coming their way.
They blew blast after blast on the locomotive whistles.
With a sickening smash, the leading locomotive of the Adelaide bound train threw nearly 600 tons of steel and timber at the head of the Melbourne train waiting at the Serviceton platform.
The leading engine reared up and leapt over the stationary engine before crashing down an embankment on its side.
When the head-on smash was seconds away, each crewman thought he was taking his last breath.
At the last minute, they jumped and huddled against the embankment opposite the station platform, all except the hapless Hosking, who jumped in the opposite direction.
To the amazement of the fortunate crewmen, the wreckage – bits of the track, torn pieces of steel from engines, and other burning oil – flew the other way.
The only factors that saved the accident from being more serious were that one engine was derailed and the mail vans were behind the engines.
If the steel vans had not been there to take the brunt of the impact, acting as a buffer, many carriages would have been telescoped and casualties would have been high.
Jay (J.J.) Potts of Kaniva arrived on the scene at 4am and related his experience to the Age Newspaper:
“When I arrived at Serviceton, the permanent way was strewn with the wreckage of the four engines. You have no idea of the mess. The rails were twisted like bits of paper.
“One Melbourne-bound engine was ablaze. I wondered why there had not been a real disaster in human life. I still think that it is a miracle that only one person was killed.
“The station at Serviceton was crowded with passengers from both trains. They were calm and thankful for their escape.
“I talked to a youngster in the Melbourne bound train. She was asleep when the crash came.
“She was bruised. She said she was awakened when heavy suitcases crashed upon her.
“She told me her sister was lucky. The cases missed her and she slept through it all.”
Mr Potts continued. “I mixed among the passengers at the station. What impressed me was their calmness.
“Among the Melbourne bound express were several permanent Army men who were returning to the Eastern States from leave in Western Australia. There were also aboard many men of the R.A.A.F. Their calmness must have affected the others.
The Herald reported that it was a fantastic sight…
Hundreds of passengers poured from the train, many in nightdresses and pyjamas, and stood on the track. Oil spilt from the engines had caught fire, lighting up the steam, smoke, and fog. The headlamp from one wrecked locomotive stabbed the sky like a searchlight.
Conductors and station officials walked up and down, calling for help from any passengers with medical knowledge. Men and women shouted for friends and relatives — and found them. Some — from the front carriages — were dazed. But all were safe.
Doctors and nurses were called and, together with nurses who had been passengers on the trains, worked for hours to comfort badly shocked passengers.
They were surprisingly put back on the undamaged carriages, and after much shunting, they were ready to continue their journey, as relief Victorian locomotives had been sent from Dimboola and Ararat to take the survivors on to Melbourne. South Australian engines were already at the station for the return to Adelaide.
Each train was made up of 12 carriages, and only one sleeping car was derailed. However, the four steam locomotives were so badly damaged that most had to be cut up for scrap before being removed.
Massive railway cranes were brought in from Tailem Bend and Ballarat.
In the aftermath, an inquest was held into the crash, with driver Allan Hannon committed to trial on a charge of manslaughter over the death of his fireman Cyril Hosking.
A jury found Hannon not guilty after retiring for just 15 minutes.
They had heard Hannon had shut off the steam but had not applied the brakes as he was coasting into Serviceton, looking out for the “distant” signal in the fog. He said he’d expected to hear “fog signals” detonated.
But it was the “home signal” and the Melbourne-bound engine’s light that suddenly came into view as the first warning (the distant signal) had been obscured by the rolling fog.
(fog signals are detonators placed on the tracks)
Another rail tragedy in the region, also in 1951, took 11 lives when a Bond’s tourist bus was hit by a goods train at a level crossing near Horsham.
Two men and 9 women were killed and 12 passengers were injured.
And some 12 years later, the Overland was involved in a deadly crash near Kaniva.
Five members of the same South Australian family were killed when their panel van was struck by the Express at a level crossing.
The vehicle was hurled 50 metres into a paddock by the train travelling at full speed.
A 7-year-old child survived the crash and was admitted to the local hospital with severe head injuries.
The Overland of today is a quaint and rather sad inter-capital service that has been struggling to survive.
After many changes, it is now operated by the private company Journey Beyond. It is subsidised by the Victorian and South Australian Governments and makes just two daytime return trips each week.
These days, it uses the same locomotive for the entire trip. It provides a service for country town residents along the route who have no other means of transport and can’t use a bus. It’s also a service for those who have a fear of flying.
As for tourism….Journey Beyond spruiks that on the Overland, you enjoy a relaxing journey while savouring the comforts and romance of rail.
And relax, you must, because the trip between Adelaide and Melbourne is rather stretched, as it now drops down to North Geelong instead of Ballarat.
When the Overland stops at the various country towns, including Nhill, it’s very brief and often involves the carriage attendant attempting to herd desperate smokers back onto the train.
The day trip does provide a scenic trip through the Adelaide Hills or, at the Melbourne end, a scenic trip through an endless forest of shipping containers.
The logo for the overland is an emu, a bird known for its speed and grace as it runs through the wide open lands, which is ironic because most road traffic on Dukes and Western Highways whizzes past the train as it trundles along on its eye-watering 10 and a half hour journey.
Some wag has suggested the Overland’s cowcatcher should be on the rear carriage!
While the glory days of the Overland Expresses are well and truly over, another train, once again with sleeping carriages, has been quietly transversing the same route.
Great Southern runs a luxury train service between Adelaide and Brisbane but only stops in Victoria at Stawell for passengers to take an excursion to the Grampians and Great Western.
See all the pictures in the issue.
This article appeared in the Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times, 24 January 2024.
