MIDDLETON SHUNTING YARDS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 55, 28 November 1929, Page 13

MIDDLETON SHUNTING YARDS

COSTLY ALTERATIONS Dominion Special Service. Auckland, November 27. The scheme of alterations to the Middleton shunting yards, which will be put in hand at midnight on Saturday, definitely provides for the retention of the present "hump” system, but electrically operated retarders will be installed so that the men will not have to stop the trucks as they do at present. An alternative plan submitted by the men themselves was rejected by the authorities, and there is much dissatisfaction among the men as a result. It is expected that the alterations will take about two months and the yards will be closed for that period, during which goods trains will be made up in the Christchurch yard. • The Middleton yard took about two years to construct and cost about £lOO,000. An official estimate of the cost of the alterations is not available, but it is believed to be in the vicinity of £30,000. The arrangements at the present yard have been the subject of a good deal of criticism, and some strong comment was made by the Coroner at an inquest into a fatal accident that took place there. The retarders to be put in will be of a type similar to those used in “hump” yards in other parts of the world. They \ will be placed at the bottom of the “hump” and they will remove the necessity for men boarding the trucks to stop them, as they have to do at present. The plan submitted by the men was unanimously approved by all the men actually connected with the working of the yard. They claim that it was a great improvement on the department's scheme and offered to prove this claim. The summary rejection of their plan has caused much dissatisfaction among the men. The men’s plan provided for the elimination of the “hump” altogether. This, they consider, would not only have eliminated the risk of accident. but would have saved the damage to rolling stock caused by the “hump” system.