THE LOCOMOTIVE BRANCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 235, 3 October 1924, Page 9

THE LOCOMOTIVE BRANCH.

WORKSHOP EXTENSIONS. The expenditure in the locomotive branch as included in the Railways programme totals £400,000 and includes the following:— Newmarket workshops, £20,000 for extension to existing shops and the proviBion of additional pits and roads. Petone workshops, £22.000. East Town workshops, £21,000. Napier workshops, £70(10. Addington workshops, £38,300. Hillside workshops. £20.000. Invercnrgill workshops. £9500. Greymouth workshops, £."iOOO. Nelson workshops, £400. Westport, £500. Locomotive Depots: Frankton, £45.000. This includes now engine ahed to hold 45 A.B. locomotives, pits and floor, alteration to yard coal, drainage, etc. The existing Frankton depot is too small to house the locomotives at present stationed at that important depot. The .bulk of t lie engines have therefore at the present time to stand out in the open and the conditions under which the cleaners are working are not conducive to their health or the satisfactory performance of their duties. Taihape. £30,000. Wangamii. £10.000. Napier. fsOOO. Invercargill, £4.1,000. Workshop equipment totals £108,000. Smoke diffusing plant, machinery, and coaling cranes account for £45.000." This is to provide for the purchase of machinery for Newmarket, Petone, East Town, Napier. Addington. Hillside, Invercargill, tireymouth, Nelson, Picton, and Westport. It will be necessary in the not distant future, owing to the limited capacity of the existing workshops and the impossibility of enlarging them to any material extent, to give serious consideration to the question of erecting a central workshop in each island with up-to-date equipment for building new locomotives, repairing those in service, and for the construction of new cars and wagons, a portion of the present workshops being retained for carrying out repair work only.