Frank Wilde was killed in 1914 when the horse drawn express cart he was driving was run into by a locomotive travelling to or from the Te Aro Station, Wakefield Street. ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES KILLED AT THE CROSSING. FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN WELLINGTON. A single man named Frank Wilde was killed by a railway accident in the city shortly after midday on Saturday. Wilde was driving an express over the line at the railway crossing at Customhouse Quay and Ballance Street, and apparently failed to notice a locomotive approaching. The engine crashed into the wagon, its occupant being killed instantly. His body was terribly mutilated, while the horse was also badly injured. Constable Crowe later arrived on the scene of the accident, and the body was removed to the morgue. Deceased resided at 80 Austin Street, and was employed by Messrs. J. J. Curtis and Co. He came from Wairarapa.
Engineering New Zealand’s website provides interesting information about early Wellington railway lines: 1893–1917: Te Aro Station, Wakefield Street Lobbying from the Chamber of Commerce and others resulted in an extension of the Government railway in 1893 southwards along the sea side of Customhouse and Jervois Quays and Victoria Street (now Wakefield Street, not the present-day Victoria Street) to just short of Oriental Parade. Pressure from the same group, because of congestion, contributed to the closure of the line and station in 1917, with the station later converted into a fruit and vegetable market. The Museum Hotel and Monument Apartments now occupy the site. In 2007 the construction of the apartments exposed the remains of the two platforms with their tracks and some point rodding, all now removed.https://www.engineeringnz.org/…/wellingtons-early…/
