NO TIME LOST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27510, 3 October 1950, Page 6

NO TIME LOST

Opoho Tram Line

LIFTING OF RAILS The City Transport Department lost no time after trams stopped running on the Gardens-Opoho run.before it began lifting the rails and removing the overhead wiring. Men were on these jobs yesterday morning with a steam roller, oxy-acetylene equipment, picks and shovels, a mobile crane, and the department’s overhead truck. Work was in progress in three phases when the Daily Times called yesterday.

At the Opoho terminus, a gang of men was removing the tram tracks. As tbe pick and shovel men opened up the ground, the oxy-acetylene plant was used to cut the rails at the joins while the pins were prised loose from the sleepers, and the traction engine pulled the rails away. Then the sleepers were to be hauled out of the roadway. About 100 yards of rail were removed yesterday.

The Daily Times was told that all the rails will not be removed at once. After a stretch of the line is removed, the City Works Department is to reestablish the roadway. The Transport Department will then remove the rails in another stretch, and the Works Department will follow it up. This will be done until the whole of the line is removed and the road is reformed progressively to the Gardens corner.

Further down the Opojio line, steel posts from which the overhead wires had been removed were being taken down. Nearer the Gardens the work of dismantling the overhead gear was in progress. This work will be carried out in a continuous process. When it is completed, the overhead power lines for the trolley buses will be completed to the terminal.