BIG PROGRAMME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22933, 11 January 1938, Page 11

BIG PROGRAMME

RAILWAY EQUIPMENT MORE ROLLING STOCK DEMANDS ON WORKSHOPS OUTLINE BY MR. G. H. MACKLEY "So far as equipment is concerned the programme of works for this year is one of the heaviest ever undertaken by the department," said the general manager of railways, Mr. G. H. Macklev, yesterday. There was a tremendous programme for the year 1938-39, and it was expected that the activity in the workshops would continue for a few years. The "rate of obsolescence so far as rolling stock was concerned had increased owing to the age factor, Mr. Mackley explained, and, while most of the rolling stock was kept up to the highest possible standard, scrappings j were becoming much more numerous. This of itself imposed heavy demands on the workshops and, in addition, there was the abnormal growth of business, making the task still heavier. Chilled Beef Waggons "We recently turned out of the Otahuhu workshops a further batch of chilled beef waggons, which brings the quota of this type of vehicle up to that asked for by the New Zealand Meat Producers' Board," said Mr. Mackley. As an indication of the satisfactory quality of the new waggons, a shipment of beef was railed from Wairoa to Wellington just before Christmas. "I was informed by the exporters," Mr. Mackley continued, "that the beef was put on board the boat in almost perfect condition, with a drop of only two degrees in temperature from the time it left the works at Wairoa until it was loaded at Wellington. This involved rail transport of approximately 300 miles, and it is a matter of great satisfaction to the company at Wairoa that the consignment was placed on board with a loss of temperature no greater than that experienced in transporting chilled beef from Longburn to Wellington, a distance of only eight miles. "There has been a very substantial growth in the chilled beef business and the New Zealand Meat Producers' Board has expressed every satisfaction with the manner in which the many cargoes have been despatched, and also with the facilities provided for the transport of a product requiring the quickest possible despatch and the greatest care in handling." Work at Otahuhu Outlining the programme to be undertaken at the Otahuhu railway workshops during the year Mr. Mackley said there were still four first-class cars of a new type to be completed under the 1936-37 programme which had been delayed owing to the difficulty of obtaining supplies of the necessary materials from abroad. Under the current year's programme for the Otahuhu workshops the'equivalent of 18 new type first-class cars, six combination day and sleeping cars and 39 second class carriages is to. be constructed.

Also on the 1937-38 programme for the Otahuhu shops are 20 guards' vans. The new waggon construction programme provides for 12 horsef boxes, 75 cattle trucks and the equivalent of 360 sheep trucks. A total of 1240 ordinary goods waggons is to be constructed, and provision also lias been made for the building of 22 ordinary frozen meat vans, in addition to 14 more chilled beef waggons of the same type as the 18 completed before Christmas. This programme, Mr. Mackley added, would be further increased by the 1938-39 demands.