Qualla: Hyde Railway Disaster https://qualla.com/hyde-railway-disaster en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/c/j/hyde-railway-disaster-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Hyde Railway Disaster https://qualla.com/hyde-railway-disaster Hyde Railway Disaster: Introduction https://qualla.com/hyde-railway-disaster/ Photo credit Benchill, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pat Kinney owned the farmland through which the cutting ran. His son Frank had boarded the express at its last stop in Hyde, joining the 112 other passengers on the afternoon run from Cromwell to Dunedin. At 1:45 p.m. on 4 June 1943, the train entered a 183-meter radius curve in a deep passage of rock known locally as Straw Cutting, between Hyde and the Rock and Pillar Range. It was travelling at more than 70 miles per hour. The speed limit for that curve was 30. Frank Kinney was among the 21 people who did not survive what happened next.

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Image: Benchill | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/c/j/hyde-railway-disaster-wp/pzcj-hyde-railway-disaster-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Hyde Railway Disaster: Straw Cutting https://qualla.com/hyde-railway-disaster/ Photo credit Benchill, CC BY-SA 3.0. The locomotive hit the curve and left the rails, sliding 60 meters before coming to rest against the wall of the cutting. Its boiler burst on impact, extinguishing the firebox fire but scalding the fireman severely. Behind the engine, all seven passenger carriages derailed. The s...

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Image: Benchill | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/c/j/hyde-railway-disaster-wp/pzcj-hyde-railway-disaster-straw-cutting.mp3 0:06 2 full Hyde Railway Disaster: Ninety Minutes Away https://qualla.com/hyde-railway-disaster/ Photo credit Benchill, CC BY-SA 3.0. The disaster unfolded in one of the most remote stretches of the Otago Central Railway. Initial reports reaching Middlemarch suggested an accident with possibly a few injuries, and medical personnel set out without particular urgency. That changed when they crested a rise in the ...

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Image: Benchill | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/c/j/hyde-railway-disaster-wp/pzcj-hyde-railway-disaster-ninety-minutes-away.mp3 0:06 3 full Hyde Railway Disaster: The Driver's Reckoning https://qualla.com/hyde-railway-disaster/ Photo credit Benchill, CC BY-SA 3.0. A board of inquiry pieced together what had happened. The physical evidence was unambiguous: the train had been traveling at more than twice the permitted speed for the curve. The inquiry found that the driver, 55-year-old John Corcoran, had been drunk. His judgment was markedly ...

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Image: Benchill | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/c/j/hyde-railway-disaster-wp/pzcj-hyde-railway-disaster-the-drivers-reckoning.mp3 0:06 4 full Hyde Railway Disaster: The People on Board https://qualla.com/hyde-railway-disaster/ Photo credit Benchill, CC BY-SA 3.0. The express carried 113 passengers that afternoon, people traveling between Central Otago and Dunedin on a wartime winter day. Of the 21 who died, many were from the small communities along the route, places where a loss of that scale meant that nearly everyone knew someone who h...

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Image: Benchill | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/c/j/hyde-railway-disaster-wp/pzcj-hyde-railway-disaster-the-people-on-board.mp3 0:06 5 full Hyde Railway Disaster: Walking the Cutting https://qualla.com/hyde-railway-disaster/ Photo credit Benchill, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Otago Central Railway closed in 1990, and the route has since been converted into the Otago Central Rail Trail, one of New Zealand's most popular cycling and walking tracks. The trail passes directly through Straw Cutting, where the disaster occurred. The rock walls still sta...

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Image: Benchill | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/c/j/hyde-railway-disaster-wp/pzcj-hyde-railway-disaster-walking-the-cutting.mp3 0:06 6 full