NEARLY COMPLETE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 140, 18 June 1929, Page 11

NEARLY COMPLETE

RAILWAY WORKSHOPS

BUSINESS MEN'S VISIT

WHAT THEY WILL SEE

The big party of members of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, which jwill make a tour of the Railway Department's magnificent works near Waiwetu to-morrow afternoon, will not see everything completed, as there are some 200 men employed by contractors and the Bailway Department itself still at work there, putting the finishing touches to various installations, but the visitors will probably go expecting to be more or less bored, and will. come away surprised at the completeness of the vast plant, which now employs nearly 1000 men, and is capable of building and maintaining in order any locomotive now in use in the Dominion. The last of three Garratt engines imported by the Government, now being tested out before being put on the road, is one of the things they will see first, but even this big articulated engine, which to the uninitiated looks like an engine and a half at one end, an engine and a half at the other, and a boiler and many other things, including a cab with more signs, gauges, and operating levers than the bridge of a man-o'-war, in between, could, when the works have settled dowi} -to. their full' swing, easily be made there, complete in every part. Chamber of Commerce members will see more than mere mach'inery—a system of carefully thdught-out interdependence-, of all the , many departments, which are arranged: to facilitate the work, and, as brgamsers themselves, they cannot fail to be impressed.

SMOOTH WOEKING.

Entering the main gate, opposite the midway where a travelling 25-ton crane covers the width of the buildings transversely, they- will-see-the system of flood lighting which, at night illuminates the whole- j^ard, arid as they go on they will understand that all the trouble that has gone into the lay-out is well repaid invthe smoothness of its working. Travelling cranes everywhere, from 100 tons capacity downwards, smaller jib::cranes'at the doorways, busy little motor cranes, carrying up to 13cwt, machines which perform several operations 'without moving the work from machine' to machine,'as was'necessary in the old'shops, and a complete telephone system with automatic inter-communication, which places . all departments ■ in complete touch and saves a Ipt of running about, make for /the maximum of. efficiency. This lesson is borne in on the visitor despite his inevitable. interest in the '. machines which handle the locomotives and their parts, because the almost automatic way in which an ''engine,' once shunted bri' to the traverser lines,- is run through the various stages, of dismembership, as a corpse might be if passed down a bench lined with skilled surgical students, is carried out even in the sub-departments, And in- the manufacture and assembling of the smallest parts.; '.At the gate is a 'fully equipped ambulance room, with a man in charge all day, a necessary thing in such a big concern. L Nearby is the. apprentices' room, where classes are held daily, every .apprentice- getting three hours' study during the week in draughtsmanship and ' the" theoretical side of the practical 'ork of the rest of the week.' The social hall, where the apprentices' club' has already held several dances, is a fine roomy place, with a, stage at one end, and there is also a library. .

CHECK ON STORES.

In the stores department there is no chance of anything going missing, as the shelves and bins are books as well, thanks to the mtetal: card system, on which everything on the shelf is marked, struck off as taken out, and only issued to an,order, which the messenger signs as' receipt. There is no stocktaking in. this- department, because the cards tell,the ;tale. """-■■'-:

The blacksmith's shop, in which the furnaces are run-by fuel oil, and where many smoke ■ fexhausts.take away the fumes (there isno smoke), i s the cleanest . blacksmith''s existing in New Zealand/ and it is full of the latest ideas.; , 'there is • one furnace where the heat' reaches ' 1200 degrees Centigrade, and here it has-been found difficult to obtain^. bricks which' will stand up to a Wast at this temperature for more .'than: a. month or so at a time. Here there ar-e, many 1 small- automatic hammers and .other ai&s to time-saving. The pattern .shop, is, ,an. important place. Here are Btored all the wooden, and in some cases- aluminium, patterns that represent, some fof them, months of patient work, inaking reproductions to scale in wood or metal of parts, and no less intricate', and necessarily exact, the moulds for the f'cores" round which, in some cases, the metal is poured in the sand moulds. So exact are the measurements 'of these patterns that allowance" is even made for the contraction of the poured metal when cold. The two-storied building containing the patterns has special precautions against fire. For one .thing it! is the qnly building m the works containing so much wood, and for another, the patterns: are' very valuable, and'can. be used again and again. . ■ ■■'■..• .-.. .;;'.. ,

A GIANT.

The compressor ■ room,: where three compressors provide the air, which, with the hydraulic pressure, and electricity, are the only powers used in the works, is an interesting spot, and close by stands the tower of the heaviest fitment m the shops. This is the hydraulic accumulator, an eight-ton steel spindle which acts as a sojr.t of piston rod to a strong underground reservoir, the weight being supplied by a huge cylinder of boiler plate (there are smaller schools) containing 200 tons of shingle. Not far away is the electric powerhouse. .; ■ . ■-. ■. „-...:. ; .

. Half a' day could with, advantage be spent m the foundry, where brass and steel are, made from! hundreds of different patterns. Here are seen rthe "cores" for the : moulds.. . They are made of a wijy mixture. o f flour, sand, coal oil, and binding dust, and will stand quite a lot of careful handling They must be easily brittle when the casting is^made, so that i they can be broken out of the. inside. "Fettling" castings is a simple job in these works. A ''nimbler," a sort of drum in which the castings, revolve, jostling each other, rubs some of the' corners off them, much as a public, school is said to standardise ,the individual Prom this they go on to.be more maturely fined down and polished.. Big castings have a rough time in what is known Is a.sand blast, though : sand is aU used The casting is shut in a square cell, the operator, from outside, directing a stream of metal shot on to the casting which effectively massages its hide removing .all its asperities. A hydraulic shears, a guillotine with a pressure of 15001b to the square inch, cuts through the^ Sjin axle steel easily,. enabling the reclamation of thousands, of old steel axles, which now furnish steel for the electric furnace, which can take one and 1 a half tons of-steel every hour ana a half. . ..'■,

The wagon shop is provided' with ihese locomotive works in order to do what is obviously necessary for crippled wagons and cara, and so save the long trip to the wagon.shpp at .Auckland. This local shop is necessary for the lull utilisation of wagons, jepairs to

which must be done as expeditiously as possible. This modern shop provides plenty of space, with four ten-ton overhead cranes.

BOILER PLATES,

In. the boiler plato shop steel plate is treated like tin by a variety of sturdy machines. Boilers are lifted by a 25----ton crane into vertical position on a sort of anvil, and when the machinery gets busy, the boiler is turned, automatically as the rivets fly home. These big boilers are made in cylindrical section, with only one join, and the connecting riveting is all done on the ends of the cylinders. The drilling machines also, work with the boilers vertical. A huge plane, on the principle of a carpenter's shooting board, clamps the end plates of the boilers to a platform, and the travelling cutter planes five at once, making the edges dead true and smooth. ■ ,

The tube reclaim, in its way, is as interesting as the general reclaim depot, where all kinds of scrap formerly thrown away is salved and made use of.' It is the inner surface of boiler tubes which carry the heat. Their outer surface becomes coated with whatever mineral deposit there 'is in the water, and at the end nearer to the furnace of the engine they tend to burn out. In the reclaim they are reeoiiditioned, a safe end welded on, swaged and generally made ready for use again. Just outside the reclaim is. the "rumbler," which makes a steady; sound something like the earthquake noises, but closer. Two heavy endless chains hold the pipes in a bath of solution, in which they are turned over and over against each other, to emerge with iall the silica or lime rubbed off, and shining instead of .rusty. . .' ' ' '

A UNIQUE SAW,

A unique saw, labelled "Dangerous, do not start, >? for the benefit of the curious interloper, cuts ' through steel rails in twenty seconds, though it has not a tooth,in its head. :It is simply a steel plate five feet in diameter by fiveteixteenths of an inch thick, its edge roughly punched with a chisel. This revolving at the ; highest speed obtainable melts the rail instead of cutting it. The stream of sparks, despite a copious stream,of water, shows the heat generated.- .-. ; ■

; The loeo-ereeting and heavy machine shop. is where the ■ elephants of. this metallic zoo live. Here locomotives are lifted into the air whole, and handled like naughty children. All kinds of vertical borers handle the various parts,, high-speed drilling machines, wheel lathes, and all the most" modern machinery available make the work speedy. Not far away is the light machine shop, where work no finer, 1 but done on smaller parts, is carried out by a phalanx of lathes and machines so automatic that it is hard to leave them for something else. : . What will probably most interest the visitors to-morrow, however, is the way in which the locomotives enter their hospital, and the number of invalid wards available, replete with every appliance for engine troubles, even to baths. By the time they have investigated all the departments cursorily— to do it properly would take a week— and have inspected the social' and dining arrangements for so-.numerous a staff, they will realise that out at Waiwetu is something which visitors to the city should be taken to see.