RAILWAY PROJECT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 152, 30 June 1938, Page 10

RAILWAY PROJECT

WORE IN NORTH

REMOVING ABANDONED LINE

After lying in a state of disuse and taeglect for the past seven years, the 15 miles of railway track laid on the Dkaihau to Rangiahua section, North Auckland, before the onset of depressed conditions caused the project to be abandoned in 1931, is now being taken lip by the Public Works Department, states the "New Zealand Herald" ,of today. Shortage of steel for the continuation of the Government's railway develoment policy has given the bridge girders and the rails' a new Value and it is stated that much of the material being lifted from the line is to be used bn the Tangowahine-Dargaville extension.

j Although the Royal Commission which recommended that the line to Rangiahua should be abandoned apparently could not see the necessity for iuch extension, it has been hoped by Settlers that the work would be Resumed when costs were cheaper. SJow, however, it appears that a railway service to Rangiahua is further off than ever, although so long as the bridges are left intact there sterns : a chance that the scheme has not been completely cancelled.

The line had been laid to within a Very short distance of Rangiahua when ■Work was stopped and since then no iailway traffic has gone past Okaihau. As a result the track has become very overgrown and the rails have rusted considerably* For the past few weeks gangs have been employed raising the Steel falls and removing the bridge girders. Although it was at first thought that some at least of this material was to be used for the Paeroa-Pokero line, it has n6w been learned that the rails are being sent to Tangowahine and that the bridge girders will probably also be sent there.

Much of the work of removing the heavy bridge girders has been done by a method which has not been seen in railway work for many years. A bullock-team is being used to drag the girders away from the bridges; to a point where they can be handled more easily for transportation to where they are required.