NEW RAILWAY STATION

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 64, 9 December 1935, Page 8

NEW RAILWAY STATION

Concourse a Feature LOCOMOTIVE SHED WORK UNDER WAY A sealed surface has' been put on Bunny Street, which was recently realigned to conform with the layout of the new railway station for Wellington, ami the street now bears something approaching the appearance it will have when the new station is brought iuto use. Down the centre of the wide carriageway a space has been left, enclosed with brick bordering, in which will be planted flowers and shrubs to conform to the appearance of restful beauty with which it is hoped to endow the approach to the new building. Between Bunny Street and the station will be another wide area laid out in lawn and garden intersected with paved paths leading to two tram shelters which will face the street immediately in front of the station leading from Featherston Street to Waterloo Quay. Spacious (’oncour.se. The new station has now grown to approximately the size ami shape it wilt have when finished, although workmen are still busily engaged upon the front, notable at present for the big circular space left for the gigantic clock which will surmount the main entrance. Inside the building work is being done on the concourse, workmen being engaged on the arched ribs 1 which will support the domed roof. The concourse, which will be covered by a glass roof, will be one of the features of the new building. It will give access to all platforms, and off it will be available all the facilities a traveller needs, including a post office. a bookstall, a fruit shop, a barber’s shop, toilet rooms, and an ambulance room. Passenger traffic will flow uninterruptedly through a central circulating court, adjacent to which will be the ticket offices and inquiry counters, and a room where tours may be arranged. To the left will be the entrance to the dining room, which also has another entrance from the main concourse on the platform side of the building. Beyond the concourse is a roofed-in luggage way, forming a thoroughfare for the length of the concourse for the luggage trucks connecting with the luggage dock on Waterloo Quay. This will obviate the passage of trucks amid passengers. New Platforms. Hidden away behind Ute station building there is in progress an interesting work, the erection of the standards for the verandas on four platforms. The platform roofs in the new station will be of what is known as (he ’’butterfly” type, as distinct from the common “umbrella” style The difference is that on the new platforms the roofs will slope slightly upward from either side of central supports, giving an apiiearance rather reminiscent of a butterfly with its wings spread. The general type of platform veranda has a slightly curved roof witli the lowest point: the outside edge, after the style of an open umbrella. The butterfly veranda is considered to have a slightly better appearance and some advantage in utility, in that the guttering to take the stormwater, instead of being along the outside edge witli a down pipe in full view, can be in the centre of the two wings For supports shaped rails are being used, one being placed every 20ft. Over the main departure platform, which will be 30ft. wide, there will be a double veranda. Every 180 ft: there will be a standard higher than the platform to carry the overhead electric gear. The concrete sides for the platforms have been built, and later the footway will be packed with hard tilling and the surface asphalted. New Engine Sheds. A start has been made with the new locomotive, rolling stock and machine shop sheds at the northern eud of the new railway ya,rds This building is expected to take about a year to finish, for the sheds are designed on a very large scale, covering an acre of ground. There are five divisions—steam locomotives. electric locomotives, a central repair shop, a machine shop and a car wagon shop—so that steam locomotive work is really a minor part. The fact that the building will be on reclaimed land has compelled the introduction of special construction methods

A special design of pits will be used, for the pit floors, whicli will run the full length of the loco, and car sheds, will have sides of long, reinforced concrete beams, supported at regular spaces by piles. Throughout the sheds special materials will be used to combat possible corrosion. In the pits asphalt floors will be used for a time, till consolidation of the reclaimed land is complete.