BIG TURNTABLE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 83, 5 October 1933, Page 12

BIG TURNTABLE

FOR LARGEST ENGINES

GOING IN AT THORNDON

A little in front of the Thorndon railway station platform, rather curiously placed in relation to the present rail 1 way lay-out, but just where it will be required when tho new yard is in operation, is now being installed a 70ft turntable, capable of accommodating the largest locomotives likely to bo used in New Zealand for. a long time to come. The previous standard turntables' were of. 55ft, also considered •of ample dimensions when: they were designed some years ago, but outgrown when the Railway Department decided upon the new' "X" type locomotive- for heavy duty. •■-.,..

The "X". engine and tender measure 69ft 11 l-Bin overfall, but the measurement between extreme wheel centres is 61ft 10-Jin, s\> there is quite a bit to spare. The construction is very massive, necessarily so, for the "X" in full working ' ordei- weighs nearly 140 tons. The turntablo is supported upon a great central pivot, exactly set in a mass of concrete, and on bearing wheels which run on a circular track. Tho purpose of the turn,table is, of course, to turn the engines end for end, or to direct: engines with a minimum of shunting on to any set of lines loading to the engine house.

The Thorndon turntable was in use at tho Eastern Hutt railway workshops, but is not indispensable there and so has been installed in the new city yards. As there has been up till now no sufficiently large turntable in Wellington, "X" engines running to Wellington with Main Trunk trains have had to be taken to tho Hutt Workshops to be turned. At Paekakariki, Palmerston North, Auckland, and at a good many points on the way 70ft turntables have already been installed.

The bringing in of. the main beam from "Wobum was. quite a big job. The weight Avas about 35 tons and special provision had to be mado for such a heavy single load. The haul was made on Sunday and. the truck was run on a temporary track supported on. many sleepers built up, criss-cross, from the bottom of the turntablo pit. There is no crane about Wellington, short of the floating crane, which can look at a lift of 35 tons, and other ways had to be found. First the beam was jacked up sufficiently to leave tho truck clear. The truck was then run out and the beam is "being lowered down on powerful jacks, tho sleepers being rcmovod stage by stage. The work will take several days to complete, after which tho pit, which is at present only roughly excavated, will bo dressed up, concreted, and fitted with circular bearing tracks.