SWEDISH AXLE BOXES

Feilding Star, Volume 8, Issue 2585, 1 December 1931, Page 8

SWEDISH AXLE BOXES

FOR NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS PREMIER FORBES REPLIES TO LABOUR PARTY’S CHARGE (li\ Telegraph -Special to Star) Auckland, Dec. j. A reply was made last. evening by Premier Forbes to a circular issued by the national executive of the Labour Party with reference to an order for axle boxes amounting to £. 13 ,000 placed in Sweden by the Railway Department. Mr Forbes said the roller bearing axle boxes had been adopted for the new railway cars and engines. This was a modern development and was made the subject of careful study by Mr Angus, assistant chief mechanical engineer of the Railways Department, when he was sent abroad some two years ago. “After carefully considering- the various types of axle boxes in use on other systems Mr Angus recommended the adoption of the roller bearing exle boxes manufactured in Sweden,” said Mr Forbes. “The manufacture of these boxes requires highly specialised knowledge and machinery, neither of which is available in New Zealand, so that it is entirely incorrect to say they could l>e manufactured in this country. ’