RAILWAY YARDS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18635, 9 March 1926, Page 8

RAILWAY YARDS.

LAY-OUT AT MIDDLETON. WORK NOT YET COMMENCED. No instructions have been issued by Head Office of the Railway Department for the local officers to proceed with the work of laying out the niaN shalling yards at Middleton, and it is believed that the undertaking .was delayed until the Prime Minister an : nounced the Government's intentions regarding the Lyttelton tunnel. Plans were brought from Wellington some weeks agb by the Inspecting Engineer, and electrification will entail verv little alteration. Trains will be assembled by steam power, and the i operations necessary will bo. reduced to a minimum by the provision of a "hump" track, which will be the hrst of its kind in the Dominion. It will commence with a steep gradient, up which the trucks will b» shunted, to run down the long slope on the other side to the classification sidings. Through the erection of posts between the roads to carry the power lines the amount of clearance will require to be increased, but electrification should affect only two or three sets of lines. * The yards will be the most up-to-date in New Zealand, and will greatly facilitate the running of trains. The general idea is to provide a yard for marshalling trains for all lines, and the plan provides for an over-all length of almost exactly a mile. The rails will be laid south of Middleton station, and the yard will occupy the land between Cutler's and Junction roads. . . . , . All trains will be received in a group of Arrival sidings, and after marslialling for various stations, will bo finally placed in the departure sidings. An additional road between Middleton and Addingtou will be necessary. .