11-MILE GAP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19241, 5 February 1937, Page 6

11-MILE GAP

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION NAPIER TO WAIKOKOPU WAIROA SECTION READY WATTING ON THE VTA DUCT (Herald Special Reporter.) WAIROA, this day. A gap of only !1 miles in the railway between Napier and Waikokopu remains to be completed to bring Gisborne to within Id miles of the main system. Trains are running already on the other portions, although certain work still remains to be done before the job is properly completed. The length Viet ween Wairoa and .Mohaka is ,already in ,;i workable condition, and till the steel for .the .Mohaka viaduct has been transported over the line from Wairoa. This section was badly damaged during the earthquake, but to bring it to a pro perly completed stage a good deal of ballasting has to be done, and a number of smaller details, .such as the completion of stationvards and fencing, must be attended to. This work is now going ahead rapidly.

Eighty men are now employed between Mohaka and Waikokopu. The first thing to do when the railway work was resumed was to restore that already done between Mohaka and Wairoa to the condition reached prior to the earthquake. This has been done, and the construction gangs arc taking the work to the completed stage. THE WAIROA STATION Additional facilities must be provided at the Wairoa station, including engine sheds, station buildings, water and coaling facilities and turntables, which are essentials to an important station on a through line.

Only minor alterations will be required in the offices at the station at present used by the Public Works Department’s staff controlling the work on the Wairoa section, for they are readily adaptable for purely railway purposes. No information is available as to when the line will be taken over by the Railway Department. That will depend entirely upon the date the completed stage is reached. It has been staled already that the first train from Napier should reach Wairoa by June, but ii is expected that some months must elapse after that before the work is completed to the stage when the Railways Department will take over tin' services. NEW I’.W.D. OFFICES

When the Railway Department does assume control, the Public Works Department’s stall' will he housed in now offices which the department proposes to build in the town.

By June, therefore, the railway will lie completed lo within 4.1 miles of Gisborne. The Waikokopu section is already in use, and trains are run between Wairoa and Waikokopu almost daily with meat from the freezing works to the port of Waikokopu and with shingle for the Gisborne section. The shingle is put off the trucks at Waikokopu, and carted to Kopuawhara.

Little work is necessary on the Waikokopu-Wairoa length. Before the earthquake in 10111 ballasting' had been completed, but some had to he dope again after the earthquake, the amount being small, compared with that on the Wairoa-Mohaka section. Certain improvements have yet to be made at the stations along the route between Wairoa and Waikokopu.

THE MINOR STATIONS There is a stretch of only 1H miles on the line between Waikokopu and Napier on which trains are not run. and this is between Putorino and Moliaka. A weekly goods train travels between Putorino and Napier, while trains its required for Public Works Department’s use are run between Wairoa and Moliaka. Stations are already laid out between Moliaka and Wairoa, on which length there are two, excluding those nt the two points mentioned, namely, at Waihua and Ohinepaka. Between Wairoa and the present terminus at Waikokopu there are three stations, Tuliara, Whaknki, and Null aka. The distance from Moliaka to Wairoa by rail is 20 miles, and from Waikokopu to Wairoa 25 miles.