EAST COAST LINE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 172, 12 June 1940, Page 2

EAST COAST LINE

RAILWAYTO THE RANGITAT.KI

HOW THE ROUTE WAS CHOSEN

(Continued from Monday)

A fire, which destroyed the department's workshops at the Mount. Tauranga, in June, 1919, added to the embarrassments of the engineers in charge of the construction works. These workshops not only manufactured steel girders lor the iau-

ranga bridge, hopper and eartli waggons for the ballast trains, and huts for the workmen, as well as repairing all locomotives and rolling stock used on the new line, but also much steelwork was fabricated for the department's undertakings in other parts of the Dominion. New, buildings were immediately erected and equipped the following year.

With the conclusion of the war, a start was made to bridge the gap between Waihi and Tauranga. Construction was pushed on from Athenree in the direction of Katikati and work was commenced for the first time in a westerly direction, from Tauranga. The new Minister of Public Works, the Hon. J. G. ...

Coates, at the same time announced his decision to place the construction of the line over the intervening gap of 18 miles, Katikati-Te Puna, in the hands of private contractors, and as the result of tender ing, Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company, Limited, obtained the contract foi* this work in March, 1924. From this date surer progress was recorded in the Waihi-Tauranga sector. In December* of that year goods trains were run from Waihi to Athenree, and in March the next year to Tahawai, while westward of Tauranga all classes of traffic were carried for a distance of six miles. The bridging of these two sectors by the Armstrong, Whit-/ worth contract actually brought the East Coast Railway to completion for by February, 1926, progress had been made with the work beyon:! Matata until passengers and goods were being carried as far as Taneatua, the "back door" of Whakatane. Officers in Charge^ The higher direction, which was initiated in 1910 under Mr G. L., Cook, was continued on his retire-* ment by Mr John Hannah, district | resident engineer, Tauranga, and ' prior to his retirement, acting in-

specting-engineer at the head office, Wellington. He was followed by Mr J. D. Holmes, and then, in 1920, by Mr F. S. Dyson, whose term came to an end in 1928 on transferred to Dunedin. /Mr A.. S. Stewart took the survey on to Taneatua, and was in charge of the construction work in the Matata region for many years; Mr Muir, now attached to the Auckland district, was associated with the AwakeriTaneatua section for some time; Mr R. A; Wilson did the survey Waihi to Tauranga, and Mr R. R. Dawber was in charge for some years of the construction of the line between Waihi: and Katikati. Mr T. Seddon, ' overseer, had probably as intimate an acquaintance with the route and the work connected with it as anybody . As far as the proposed extension of the railway to Gisborne is concerned, the reute from Taneatua. the present terminus, to Opotiki, has been surveyed, and a route selected between there and Motu, the " present terminus of the Gisborne railway. Conclusion Problematical 1 . South of Gisborne, the line tp Ngatapa has been in the hands of the Railway Department since the J end of 1924, but present indications point to the adoption of a coastal route, for economy's sake, on to Waikokopu, rather than the immediate continuation of/ the inland line at present ended at Ngatapa. From Waikokopu construction is in progress to Wairoa, and is also well in hand between Wairoa and Napier. Fifteen miles of rail extending north of Napier to'Eskdale were taken over by the Railway Department in 1923. When the link is completed with Napier, the North Island AA:ill possess an unbroken length of railway skirting the entire East Coast, and providing an alternative AucklandWellington connection to the central Main Trunk Railway. The war, of course, will prevent 1 any consideration of this for some • years, and it ir> quite possible that - the scheme may be dropped in fav-t f our of a main highway down the 7 coast.