Addington Workshops are all set for a second century

Press, 30 December 1978, Page 14

Addington Workshops are all set for a second century

After 40 years with the railways, Arthur Blackford’s career is almost over, but his charge — the Addington workshops — seems likely to go on for ever.

Works manager of the Addington workshops for the past two years, he is due to retire soon. The workshops will be 100 years-old next year. And if Mr Blackford is right, they will see another centurv out.

“So long as there are trains there’ll be a job for us,” he says. Arthur Blackford joined the railways as an apprentice workshop worker in 1939, when the workshops were the unchallenged Titan of Christchurch industry. “I was staff No. 1306. There’s only four other blokes from my intake still on the job, and we all

finish up about the sam time.”

The works manager's office in the 90 year-old administration block is beside a railway track. Our conversation is periodically interupted by the roar of locomotives dragging waggons and cariages in for repair.

It is not uncommon for visitors or new workers to get lost in the sprawling 17ha conglomerate of cavernous workshops and railway yards. Arthur Blackford grins as he tells the story of one new worker, who after going for morning tea, couldn’t find tiis way back to his work bay.

Staff members at Addington have declined since Arthur Blackford was an apprentice, but today the workshops are still a big employer. Although it may not be the biggest in size, Addington probably has the biggest staff of any railway workshops in the country. The Addington workshops find work tor 884 people, compared with

850 at the giant Otahuhu workshops at Auckland. Perhaps Addington could find work for more. But with the Government’s present staff ceiling policy, it seems unlikely that numbers will exceed pre-World War II figures, when staff numbers rarely dropped below the 1000 mark.

Workshop-men are honest about their work place. “It gets filthy and bloody hot,” moans a man in greasy overalls. “The pay is better at the freezing works,” chips in another. But neither say they will leave. Their reasons? “I like working with trains,” and, “all my mates are here; we have some good times.” The work at Addington requires the skills of many tradesmen. Black-

smiths, boiler-makers, fitters and turners, coachbuilders and electricians are some of the more numerous to be seen at work. They belong to different unions — the Tradesmen association and the National Union of Railwaymen. Industrial rela= tions, on the surface anyway. seem very good. “We have our ups and downs, but if there is ever a problem we can solve it by sitting down and talking it out,” says Arthur Blackford. The only strike at the workshops that he can recall happened “way back in the Depression days.” “Then it was a sneaky one,” he grins. “Most of the men were away on their Christmas holidays at the time.” Although part of a national industry, the Addington workshops have always kept their own identity. Arthur Blackford is not joking when he says there is little contact with the "outside world.” “We’re a pretty tight-

knit circle here; we stay within our own four walls, in a manner of speaking ” He may well be right. Workshop-men seem a gregarious lot. They have their own band, choir, bowls club, fire brigade, first aid club and even a horticultural society which sells gardening supplies to members. On a tour of the workshops, Arthur Blackford admits that many of the buildings are old. Some are cramped, and antiquated equipment is still in use.

“Sure,” he shrugs, “may be we haven’t got the latest gear like some of these flash new engineering businesses, but we can do things here that could open dieir eyes.” He points to a $250,000 under-floor lathe which is used for turning huge locomotive wheels. And proudly shows off a $90,000 computenoperated lathe which is kept behind locked doors even when it is working (“to keep sticky fingers from fiddling”). But on the debit side there are cranes which have been in use for nearly 70 years, and the workshops not designed for modern machines.

But work goes on all the same — and there is more of it these days. Recently the workshops finished a protoptype sideopening container designed for flat topped waggons.: Another 1400 will be built. As far back as 1889 locomotives were built at Addington, but after 1928 the workshops stopped building or repairing them. However, they are now beginning to be seen at Addington again. Carriages, in various stages of repair, and disrepair, clog the internal railway tracks. Engines are being pulled out of the old West Coast railcars and the bodies being turned into passenger carriages for the Picton to Christchurch run.

■ Elsewhere, carriages destined for the Welling-

ton commuter trains have been stripped down to their wooden ribs and are slowly being rebuilt again. With all the clanking of machinery, flying sparks and glowing furnaces, safety dominates the minds of workshop administrators. Yet the men at Addington are proud of their safety record. “I can’t pretend that we don’t have accidents here,” says Arthur Blackford, “but I can’t remember when we last had a serious one.” Everywhere you go, there are safety posters and notices. Painted in huge red and black letters on the side of one workshop are the words “you can’t buy new eyes.” the slogan “safety week starts every Monday” is on the tall concrete water tower, built by prison labour in 1883. In every workshop and shed the safety message is repeated. Each week workers and bosses get together and discuss the number

of injuries and the causes. Old age and the need for more work room has meant some workshops are being extended. But if additions to the existing sprawling buildings continue, sooner or later the Railways will run out of room at Addington. There are two solutions: build up or find another site.

Arthur Blackford doubts if the railways will ever abandon the present site. Instead, the workshops may spill over into nearby Clarence Street where the Railways owns land. But according to some longtime railwaymen, this suggestion has been talked about for at least 20 years.

The Railways Workshops Redevelopment Committee has recently investigated Addington’s future. The findings are to be released soon, but Arthur Blackford predicts that the committee will not be mooting any major changes.

Bv

GERARD HALCROW