 On 17 October 1997, the mid-morning service to Wellington broke down 2.5 km into the Rimutaka Tunnel from the Featherston portal after an electrical fault in locomotive DC 4951's control gear.The Rimutaka Tunnel is a radio dead-spot, and the train driver and guard found the Train Control telephones on the tunnel wall to be dead.Shortly afterwards, the tunnel alarm sounded at Upper Hutt signal box indicating the train had been in the tunnel for more than 15 minutes, and a full-scale emergency response was activated.