QUITE UNOFFICIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 137, 6 December 1935, Page 7

QUITE UNOFFICIAL

TOUK BY "STREAM LINE'

PAY DAY ON TAWA FLAT

Friday was pay day on the Tawa Flat deviation, an occasion, and, chiefly because he happened to be there when the pay,, car '..started out, a "Post" reporter:, went vwith it. It was an occasion for • him; he had an afternoon of new thrills, got in well ahead of the official* four and speeches (a previesv, they call. "it'iini picture theatre circles), met the Stream Line, the pay wagon, and saw old car parts put to brandnew uses.

The Stream Line is unique, temperamental,' a trifle cranky from hard usage, but'a good friend to every man on the job on pay day, and a proper goer. Probably that is not her official style at all; KAblAl, or something of that sort, is more suitable on records. She is built entirely of pieces, naturally, but all sorts of pieces. The wheels have an allpa ten ts-rights-inf ringed look about them, past year car discs, disc plough moulds, and solid railway duty combined, not aristocratic, but dependable. The chassis is made of iron and wood, sprung with springs, but not tool much. Oh the bonnet is a fine old1 lorry . nameplate and under it is an engine of venerable years. Further back there are gears and things. There is an. old-time klaxon (Dinny with his white hair streaming in the wind, whistles surprisingly, and more in keeping with railway practice), there is an ammeter that does not need to York, a brake lever, and a throttle— particularly a throttle.

The Stream Line clanks over the first points and crossings and then Dinny steps on it, or, rather, pulls the wire, and up the grade from Thorndon she goes, to the first working crew. The pay\ box does good work and Dinny winds her up again. The first tunnel is not so long. The second is long, and'cold:- -The second tunnel is .two and three-quarter miles long, and;as straight as.engineers could' make it;-it is^straight.. As the cold gets properly to: work the speck that is the far end goes further, ;but Dinny sticks to it and ."just as the thermometer reaches rock ; bottom the speck admits that' it is licked and sits down and waits. Outside it is warm again.

There are several stops, the longest at the crusher, where tens of thousands, of tons.of rock blasted from the tunnel driving are gone over again and graded for ballasting. The crusher is a single machine covering half a hillside, and is so planned that one man, normally, canjun it, for it is largely automatic, but that crusher, for all its .self-sufficiency, needs a lot of feeding, and a big, crowd;,of men, working;, on the'dump, faces and with the steam-loading navvy and the,trucks, gathers ground, i ; .■'..■:' . [ '". J ' ..":

One more-.pay and the end of .the new line was; readied, threerquarters of a mile. past the present Tawa Flat station;- -On the Hutt.line, where .the particular reporter travels," locomotives run. with apparently equal success frontwise or backwards, and he naturally, thought that the Stream Line would, go .into- reverse. T .-. -.■.., , , ... ;

And.she tcanV-.too. as ..was ,' -demonstrated when she was/ruri. backwards in the tunnel.to give= a .clear view of the 125 ft shaft which, drops. through the ''-'tunnel roof- ironii the- creek, bed below the Belraont viaduct (catch a full-sired ■ official visit-of-inspection train doing that). However, everyone was ordered off! The spare wheel, on a cut-off axle, was hauled off, and out of the tool box seat came odds and lengths of timber and a jack. The rear end of'tft"c9Tr3F*l6'rry^\Vß^}acTie^i:-up;-"-the-spare Xvh'efel'placed*plumb centre, 'and packed with timber.. Ttie jack was. re> leased, and round she went—every rail car its own turntable. They have the same thing for X engines, but it is not portable. . .

Once; turned and with the pay box empty, the return trip was just a whizz; it seemed down-hill all the way. Dinny's hair streamed more than ever. The'tunnel was ripped through in about eight minutes, and the black-out gave way to the harbour view. That is one thing that the deviation will give to rail travellers when the line is opened, a most picturesque introduction1 to Wellington harbour and city, as-the train runs down the tunnel incline. - ~ •