THE OTIRA TUNNEL.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1920, Page 5

THE OTIRA TUNNEL.

WORK OF ELECTRIFICATION. COMMENCES SHORTLY. The English Electric Company, Ltd., to whom the complete contract for the electrification of the Arthur's Pass section of the Midland railway has been let, is generally accepted as one of the more thoroughly organised of British electrical manufacturing firms for undertaking electrical schemes of any magnitude in any part of the world. The head office is in London, and the works in Great Britain are situated at Coventry, Rugby, Bradford, Stafford, Pre3ton, and Kilmarnock. The company is a combination brought about last year of several wellknown firms. In, conversation with a Daily News reporter, Sir Arnold Gridley, K.8.E., a representative of the company, who is on a visit to New Plymouth, stated that the work of boring the necessary holes in the tunnel, to which have to be attached the various lines and cables, will be commenced very shortly. He anticipates that the completion of the job will take eighteen months. The price is £300,000. The contract which Sir Arnold has negotiated on behalf of the company includes the electrical equipment of a coalfired generating station of 4000-h.p. capacity at Otira; the supply of six electric locomotives; the electrification of the track between the present steam termini at Otira and Arthur's Pasß, including the new 5%-mile tunnel, the electric lighting of the tunnel, and the equipment of the neecssary workshops at Otira. •