NEW RAILCARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 234, 2 October 1940, Page 11

NEW RAILCARS.

FOR SOUTH ISLAND USE.

WAR HINDERS. DELIVERIES.

• WELLINGTON, tbie. day.

The first of ten railcars of a new type ordered in England by the New Zealand Government has arsived in the South Island and is now being prepared at the Aldington Railway Workshops for the Christchurch-Greymouth-Hokitika' service. It is a Vulcan Diesel-driven car and was partly assembled when shipped to New Zealand.

Though ten Vulcan railcars were ordered/ it is not known when the remaining nine will 'be available. Since the order was placed war hae intervened, and their arrival in the Dominion must, in the present circumstances, be uncertain. The order, incidentally, was placed with the Vulcan Foundry Company, Lancashire, in May, 1938, and in ordinary circumstances the new cars ■would have been operating on New J Zealand lines by the end of last year.

The Vulcan car Is similar -in some respeete to what is known as the standard type of railcar now operating on North Island lines, principally between Wellington and New Plymouth and Wairoa and Napier. It is equipped with double 'bogies and has seating for approximately 60 passengers. Before being placed in commission the new car will 'be thoroughly tested. The Vulcan railcar is considerably larger than the four-wheeled type of car now running the daily service* between Ghristchurch and the West Coast. .

"She number of railcars now in operation on New Zealand lines is Iβ, one, a email unit built in 1933 and weighing only three tons and a half, being retained for Departmental use only. ' Of the 15 cars at present in service, four are petrol-engined and the rest are powered by Diesels. The Wairarapa type of railcar, specially designed for working over the steep Rimutaka incline, weighs 12} tons, and the standard type on the New Plymouth run has a loaded weight of 32 tons.