THE AUCKLAND-PENROSE DUPLICATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 80, 3 April 1906, Page 5

THE AUCKLAND-PENROSE DUPLICATION.

$ FLYING VISIT.

WORK. INvMJLL SWING.

Notwithstanding that «fqr some time*, after the beginning of operations the Auckland-Penrose .duplication . work' ■ seemed to be a. creature of verymoderate growth, the state of progress noticeable .'at the present time.disposes of any suspicion at first engendered . that after the' initiar fanfare the 'authorities would not trouble to unduly hustle j matters. Since last Laboiir Day, when the engineer (Mr Mclntosh) and Mr f Bennett (foreman of the work) tramped' : over the line of route to pick upon the likeliest spot to make a-start upon, an amount of delving, blasting, .embanking,; and partial formation has taken place with considerable activity. • . ~& visit to the scene of operations this morning disclosed that between "the tunnel and the Parnell Bridge the work of duplicating the permanent way is now approaching completion. About -t-Ke much-discussed bridge -itself a large gang of men are busily employed at either side of the road. All the southern piers are now well in hand: one. of them, in fact, being built to within six. feet of the line of rail. ] A large stationary engine is now toping, employed inj grindrng and mixing the inortai- on the southern side, while across the'road a donkey engine is also hard at work pumping water from the foundation works of the additional pier that will be requisite for the northern approach of the ■ double track. The stone used for the new piera is being all taken from the Newmarket quarries, which produces a harder and better stone than Rangitoto. The largest gang of men, however, is employed between NewmarkeU and Green I<ane, which is the present limit of progress. And a glance at the country being passed through, fertile as it looks on top, is not -calculated to encourage the class of worker known vernacularly as a "waster" to apply for a job here. From just beyond the workshops, right through Remuera to the present end of the work is solid, blue volcanic rock, through which in at least one place a cutting nearly twenty feet deep is being driven, while over nearly the whole distance the rock has stuck stubbornly in front to a thickness of between four and six feet. The ultimate level has now been reached over a good part, of this two miles, the temporary track laid for the ballast trains lying from four to ■six feet below the present main line, which will later be taken down to the same level. This lowering of the level, although entailing arduous work, will be of immense benefit in reducing the present heavy grade of the Remuera Hill, which is, by the way, the heaviest pull between Auckland arfd Mamaku, and responsible for more lurid and criti-. cal remarks on the part of drivers than, any .other stretch on the Auckland section. * Some ISO men are now employed-over the length of duplication in hand, and; it is evident that a weeding process has -been vit work, for a strong, willinglooking, thoroughly useful team of men; is now employed striving, to give Auckland its eagerly anticipated double! track. The/ men -themselves -clearly, take: a pride in their, work, and.are cpntjuju-' ally trying to break each succeeding record for loading a brake of ten trucks with mullock at Bemuera and discharging it over the Newmarket embankment, or at the bridge. An average of eight of these train loads .of material iks .being run out daily, winch means that between 400 and 500' tons of rode .and earth are being shifted every . eighit hours. The only part of the line within , ■the disturbed limits that presents no sign of the rooting .up. process is the short section between : Newmarket station and the tunnel. This piece, of track,; in common with the tunnel, length, it is not at present proposed to duplicate, so that trains will still.continue to "leave Newmarket for town and arrive tbere■from by the One.single line. This ; is toavoid the danger of more than, one set of points in connection with the tunnel. Although it will probably be another, two years before trains.are able to come and go. between Auckland and Penrose, with-; out the necessity of occasional sidetracking en route, the generally energetic way in which 'operations are •pushed on, and probably will, as ters progress, continue to be increasingly so, brings the -concrete; fact and ever nearer to our horizon that r Auckland is after all to. get that additional line of rail before the millennium, a,s some of us were beginnin" to doubt. ...... •■.•; "