NORTH RAILWAY LINE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28480, 9 January 1958, Page 12

NORTH RAILWAY LINE

Chaneys Deviation Ready By Easter

The prospect of the new deviation of the main trunk railway between Chaneys and Kaiapoi being opened for traffic by Easter was reported to the Minister of Railways (Mr M. Moohan) yesterday when he inspected the work. A length of line north of the Waimakariri river has been laid and the platelaying across the river will be carried out next. The original gang dispersed to more profitable seasonal work about the time the crane necessary for laying girders on the piers of the new bridge began a major overhaul.

The new line is of 911 b rails, an improvement on the British 851 b rails which had weaknesses. The 42ft rails are being welded at Addington into six lengths. The route of the planned loop railway from Sockburn to Styx was inspected by the Minister, who was accompanied by the General Manager of Railways (Mr A. T. Gandell), the district traffic manager (Mr W. J. Millin) and the district civil engineer (Mr G. R. Rushton). All the land has been acquired but no work has been done on the eight-mile loop. Industrial areas have been zoned at the Sockburn-Hornby end and at the Styx end. The loop route is from east of the chemical works at Hornby, across Waterloo road to the western side of Carmen road, and then to Russley road before it swings towards Styx, where die line will join the main trunk line by the main highway overhead bridge.

An overhead bridge at Memorial avenue just before it enters the Christchurch Airport is proposed, and other traffic bridges’ are planned for the future. Mr Moohan was studying the scheme for the first time and made no comment, other than that the route presented no engineering problems, and required no bridges or culverts. It was explained to him that industrial land in Christchurch was now only available at Woolston and that when a demand arose for sites with rail sidings the loop line would provide for •xpsiiitoiL