MINISTER ON FOOTPLATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20597, 23 June 1930, Page 11

MINISTER ON FOOTPLATE.

JOURNEY BY MR. VEITCH. INSPECTION OF LOCOMOTIVE. A return to the locomotive footplate was made by the Minister of Railways, the Hon. \V. A. Veitch, last week, when he rode in the cab of a Garratt locomotive, one of the high-powered engines imported to facilitate the hauling of heavy trains over the difficult grades in the King Country section of the Main Trunk line. Mr. Veitch was an enginedriver on the railways before he entered politics. For his brief return to the footplate last week he wore a suit of old clothes, instead of the conventional blue overalls of the engine crews. The Garratt engines are fed by a mechanically-operated stoker worked by an independent steam engine, and the tests carried out last week were made with the object of experimenting with hand-fed fuelling. The trials were made between Wellington and Paekakariki, and tho Minister travelled as far as Johnsonville on one of the engines in order to see at first hand the working and efficiency of these remarkable locomotives. Tins part of the Main Trunk is one of the most heavily tunnelled sections on the line, also providing exceptionally steep grades. The Minister showed great interest in the engine, and he studied its mechanism carefully.