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Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21976, 28 December 1936, Page 6

Good progress is being made in installing two additional turbines at the Arapuni power station. The turbines are both of 30,000 horsepower and will take several months to prepare for operation. Part of the building which will hou: : them is complete, and the installation of an additional transformer plant is well under way. More than 200 men are working on the station and on the construction works. The new railway station building is by no means the only one which is being erected as part of the plan of reorganisation of railway facilities in Wellington. In the new station yard there are several others, ranging from accommodation for the sorting of cups which arrived by train and have to be returned to the right refreshment rooms, to a very extensive locomotive car and waggon repair and maintenance depot. Some of the buildings are in use, others are being built and some will be started early next year. Interesting features are incorporated in the new locomotive repair and maintenance depot. The building, which covers more than an acre, is on ground which has not long been reclaimed. The whole structure has to be carried on piles driven to solid and then cut off level, so that the concrete work is taken to some depth below the ground surface. Repair pits in the locomotive shops are also of special construction because of the nature of the ground. The pits run the full length of the locomotive and carsheds, but the pit floors are below wet level on ground not yet fully consolidated, so that ordinary concrete construction resting on piles will not serve. The pit sides are really long reinforced concrete beams, resting on pile foundations, with asphalt flooring to allow for any sinking that may occur as the ground consolidates. The car and waggon repair depot is the only part of the building which is yet being used for its intended purpose. Part of the accommodation is being employed as garaging space for railcars till a rail-car shed is built.