RAILWAY WORKSHOPS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIII, Issue 10095, 7 September 1925, Page 2

RAILWAY WORKSHOPS

REORGANISATION SCHEME

LARGE AREAS OE LAND AT PETONE AND NEWMARKET. (SPECIAL TO THE TIMES.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 3. In Lis annual statement recently placed before Parliament, the Minister of Railways outlined the workshops reorganisation scheme, which provides for the concentration of four main shops, two or which {those at Newmarket and Petone) were to he new shops erected on modern lines, and on sites that were being secured. Mr Coates has now stated that an area, of opproxiinately (50 acres adjoining'the ilutt Park racecourse Has been set apart for the Petone shops from the land recently taken by the Government in connection with the Hutt Valley settlement scheme. With regard to the construction of a new building for the Newmarket shops, a site has been obtained at Otahuhu on the sea- side of the railway between the Otahuhu and Mangere_ railway stations, of an area of 1051 acres. These shops will he .used as locomotive works and as in the ease of the Petone shops, will he equipped with the most up-to-date electrically-driven machinery. The drawings are now well in hand, and tenders will be called for the buildings in the near future. , - So far as the shops at Addington and Hillside arc concerned, the present sites are suitable for purposes of efficient re-arrangement, as already stated. The former will he used as car and waggon shops and the latter as locomotive shops. Tenders have already been invited for the modern machinery required in Connection with the general re-arrangements, and the work” will he pushed on .in accordance with the programme outlined in the Railways Statement.