WHY TWO STATIONS?

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 106, 1 November 1933, Page 12

WHY TWO STATIONS?

OLD MUDDLES CLEARED UP

The plan of the new railway yard appearing in this issue shows to what an extent the remodelling of the tracks will remove some of the disabilities which every railwayman recognised in the old layout. The present generation wonders why there were ever two railway stations, and the* visitor could never see any reason for separate stations at Lambton and Thorndon, but the railwayman knows that the matter ■ goes further than that,, and .that his chief difficulty^ lay in working two separate station yards within a short distance of one another. These two yards, the unified working of which| even with modifications upon the original layouts, imposed numerous difficulties, were due to the peculiar conditions existing prior to 1908. ■ - At that time the whole of Thorndon station and yards constituted part of the private, Manawatu Bailway Company, which-operated between Thorndon (Wellington) and Palmerston North, where connection was made with the Government Eailways. The southern yard, that is to-say, the Lambton station, was Government owned, and there was very little community of interest between the two stations^ which for' many years,, indeed, were severe competitors. Since the Main Trunk line was completed through to Auckland in 1909, and the Manawatu Company was bought out by the Government, several temporary rearrangements have been made to enable the two stations to work under one control. The development of business and the necessity for centralising the work have made a new yard imperative. HUGE IMPROVEMENTS. The new locomotive housing will be a great improvement in more ways than one. Tho old sheds were not only in a dilapidated condition, but were on Vdead-end" tracks, arid all operations in taking engines. to "iozo," as the railwaym.cn say, and out again, were much too unnecossarily complicated for modern transport conditions. The new locomotive housing is on thoroughly up-to-date lines, giving through running for the locomotives from the trains, to the coal and water services, and to shelter, with no "dead end" working whatever. The whole scheme of sfdings is on the loop system giving access at both ends, and a much freer means of entry and exist between the yard and the main lines. The seven platforms which the new Wellington station provides for passenger trains will represent a huge improvement upon the existing systems at Lambton and Thorndon where, until quite recently everything had to be received and dispatched at

long single platforms creating much inconvenience for the passengers, who had little shelter," Davis Street, which really marks tho old boundary between the former Manawatu Company's yard and the Government yard at Lambton, disappears from the plan and from the railway yard, its place being taken by a network of railway lines, including the main lines, of which there are five connecting up with the Main Trunk and the Wairarapa line. Bunny Street will of course have no railway lines. Without the reclamation of 68 acres, the new yard would have been impossible. This laud inside a new water; f font carries the new main road outlet from the city via Waterloo Quay, and what was once: the Thorndon Esplanade and Baths is now the most intensely used section of the goods train arrival and departure area.