Hutt Workshops THEIR SHARE IN THE WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 143, 18 June 1937, Page 23

Hutt Workshops THEIR SHARE IN THE WORK

The help derived in the construction of the station yard and building from the handiness of the Hutt Railway Workshops was great. These are tlie largest railway workshops in New Zealand. The works site covers 663. acres, the actual floor area of the works is nine acres, the total length of tracks in. the yard is nine miles, and there are 22 overhead cranes (the maximum individual lift is 100 tons), there are 484 machines installed, the total horse-power of the electric motors is 8100, and the total staff employed is 1760. Here 130 locomotives are overhauled every year after doing .their required milage, and a number come in occasionally lo have a light overhaul, which generally . meane re-turning tires and replacing specific worn parts. New locomotives are also built. Recently a programme of thirty "X" engines has been completed, J.one being .finished in about every six weeks, arid, as has been announced by the Minister of Railways (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan), another group is to be undertaken. In addition to this, towards the end of the year the shops

will be constitiding the electric locomotives for the Wellington-Paekakariki section. This is, ol course, a work which was intended to be in hand much earlier, hut owing to inability to obtain material from England, delay has been unavoidable. The shops also build the tail-' cars, and as soon as materials conic to hand will ( ■ proceed with the construction of the larger \ double-bogie Diesel type for the New Plymouth , run. Bus bodies for the railway road-iiiotor \ services are built here, from the largest, seating 35 passengers, lo the de luxe car type, as well as light motor-\ehiele bodies for tlie Govern*/ ment Departments. . i \

The foundiy is the largest in New Zealand,' employing 170 men. For the past eighteen \ months the factory has been working tw*» ; ' shifts, as much as sixteen tons of cast 'steel V being turned out daily. The steel foundry i'«'' had a notable effect in incieasing employment,* - as it has undertaken the manufacture of th« - new cast steel wheels, which replace the timehonoured iron-spoked wheels. The introduction' of electric butt-welding machines has expedited M the work, and means better work. In the line of structural steel, there are'on order at present over 2000 tons of girder spans and plate spans for railway bridges to be strengthened, and also for the Public Works Department's programme '•;- in the completion of new railways. There ha»>. f been great activity in the sheet metal-working department during the last eighteen months, : equipping the various Government buildings, ot Wellington, as well as the new station, withsteel furniture of all kinds.

The Hutt shops have supplied a large part, of the structural steel for many of the buildings p and platforms, which was fabricated there. .• Here the steel for the platform verandahs was; bent and issued ready for the job. Oi'er 250 tons of rails were thus used. The equipment of, : the modern furniture for the new station has ilso been a tremendous task, which the shops • still have in hand. The furniture of the old, buildings was the gathering of years, and many-.-.-. old friends mil vanish when some of the 'de-v partments move in. The old wooden office furniture is being replaced largely by the more hygienic and vermin-proof steel shelving, cabinets, and other construction, j

A variety of work is being handled for other Government Departments, the extensive range varying from radio beacon towers to experim«>« tal plant for the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research and fine electrical gear for; lhe Post Office.

Tlie shops have been of particular .use and benefit to the huge change-over involved in the transition from a two-station yard to a onestation yard, and greatly facilitated the work of the engineers in their reorganisation. The various units were delivered to them complete for installation, and this was most helpful, particularly as the time for the change-over in many localities was limited through the necessity of carrying on the ordinary traffic at the same time. '■■'.' ? •;■..' ;•'

A test run was made in 189 V by. the Welling-ton-Manawatu Company of a Baldwin Class "N" locomotive between Paekakariki. and Longburn. •., Great care was exercised in checking the.speed;,'. A world's record for the 3ft 6in gauge was set up of 64 miles per hour.