Railways to scrap 120 coal waggons

Press, 23 April 1983, Page 8

Railways to scrap 120 coal waggons

The Railways Corporation will scrap its existing stock of Q waggons qt Westport, signalling the end of the coal trade out of the port

At its meeting on Thursday, the Westport Harbour Advisory Committee received a letter from Railways area traffic manager, Mr Jack Barltrop, which read: “The present number of Q waggons available at Westport for coal traffic is 120.

“Concerning waggons in general, the district traffic manager, Christchurch, after representing the matter to head office in Wellington in receipt of the following reply: ‘lnsofar as the future of the coal traffic and Q waggons are concerned it would appear that only small tonnages of coal are expected to be shipped out of Westport in the future. (Most export coal will be shipped via Lyttelton). “The chief mechanical engineer therefore intends to write off all the existing Q waggon fleet at Westport within the next year or so. Current thinking is that they will not be replaced unless the Mines Department is prepared to either pay for the construction of new waggons or guarantee a substantial tonnage of coal traffic,” the Railways head office concluded.

Mr Barltrop’s letter continued: “I take note of Mr (Jack) London’s remarks that he considered it most unlikely any more coal boats would come to Westport as he had no customers interested in small shipments, and that they would prefer shipments of 5000 to 6000 tonnes which would be beyond the capacity of the Westport harbour.” Enlarging on his remarks in the letter, Mr Lundon told the meeting that the Mines Division had lost its only export market for Denniston coal to Australia.

That market, the Fiji cement works, had previ-

ously taken small shipments from Westport However, Mr Lundon gave some hope for the export of Denniston coal after the Liverpool mine was closed, within one to two years.

Even if the Mines Division found customers for smaller tonnages which could be shipped out of Westport, Mr Lundon said that the lack of sufficient Q waggons would prevent that.

It was pointed out that at least 300 Q waggons would be needed to service a 3000 tonne order but only 120 were available and even these were to be written off.

The chairman of the committee, Mr Bill ,Mumm, asked if that was the end of the coal trade out of Westport and Greymouth ports. Mr Lundon replied that the Mines Division might be able to ship out of Greymouth but not Westport. He explained that ordinary waggons could transport to the wharf coal where it would be stockpiled. Two Q waggons, minus bogeys, would then be filled by a front-end loader and craned to the ship in the usual manner. Mr Lundon believed that such a loading method ruled out Westport because of the effects of the coal stockpile at the wharf. Mr Mumm said that it

was in both the Mines and Railways interests to keep small orders coming into the West Coast, but conceded that the slurry pipeline proposal was more attractive to them.

“It’s the more interesting aspect as far as we’re concerned,” agreed Mr Lundon. “But not for us,” replied Mr Mumm.

Mr Les Warren, of the Miners’ Union, believed that it was essential to keep the existing stock of Q waggons serviceable.

He suggested refurbishing old stock to bring the number of Q waggons to the required number of 300. Mr Warren said that once the waggons had gone there was no way that coal could be shipped from Westport again.

He considered that renovating could be done at the local Railways workshops, thereby providing continuing employment. However, Mr V. Smith (Railways) believed that that was impractical, adding that economics was the name of; the game today and the keeping of such rolling stock was unprofitable.

Mr Warren expressed his concern for the future of the Railways workshop staff in Westport.

“They’re being gainfully employed at the moment,” replied Mr Smith. “Yes, cutting up Q waggons,” added the harbourmaster, Captain Bob Gower. Mr John Wilson, a fisherman, believed that the existing Q waggons should be maintained.

The meeting agreed to ask the Railways Corporation to retain its fleet of Q waggons and to look at the cost of maintaining them.

The Railways Corporation, in a letter to the committee, said that it was currently reviewing its yard and rolling stock requirements at Westport and a decision should be known in about five months.