CONTROL Or TRAINS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 242, 14 October 1942, Page 4

CONTROL Or TRAINS

EXTENSIONS AT OHAKUNE SECTION TO BE DIVIDED Because of congestion and heavy traffic on the single line between Frankton Junction and Marton, the train con.rol office at Ohakune Junction is to be divided. One section will control the Frankton JunctionOhakune end of the Main Trunk, and the other will control the line between Ohakune and Palmerston North. The train control system has b?en in operation for a number of years, but since it was installed at Ohakune the volume of traffic has grown to such an extent that it is now too heavy for one office. As at Wanganui, Auckland. Naoicr. and Wellington, where other North Island train control centres are located, operators work in shifts.

At present the Marton-Palmerston North section is controlled from Wellington, but because this block is in the Wanganui railway district the aciual running of trains is arranged at the district traffic manager’s office in Wanganui. As Ohakune is also in the Wanganui district, which extends as far north as Taumarunui, the change will greatly facilitate operations and eliminate inconvenience. Two separate rooms will be provided in the station building at Ohakune and certain structural alterations will be necessary. In addition new instruments and telephones will he installed. It is expected that two months will elapse before the second train control room is ready, but in the meantime four men have been transferred to Ohakune and are training as operators. The men transferred on promotion to Ohakune are Messrs. C. G. Chapman. who was stationmaster at Greatford for 11 years. C. L. Hay, clerk, New Plymouth. H. E. Stevens, shift, clerk, Taihape, and F. C. Ball, shift, clerk. Taihane. This will increase the staff of train control operators at Ohakune to eight men and the train control office there will be the largest of its kind in New Zealand. The train control system greatlv facilitates railway operations. Arrival and departure times are notified immediately from stations in all parts of the district, and are plotted on a chart. The operator can tell at a glance the whereabouts of trains, and from other information supplied to him knows their loadings and which wagons are to be collected at stations en route. When schedules are unset by late running the train control operator arranges new crossing places for opnosing trains.

The Main Trunk carries all through traffic between Wellington and Auckland and is described as the busiest line in New Zealand. The present length controlled bv Ohakune is 225 miles and the section is often thick with specials. The Frankton-Ohakune block is in the Auckland railway district.