MOHAKA VIADUCT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 129, 2 June 1937, Page 10

MOHAKA VIADUCT

COMPLETION OF WORK

FIRST TRAIN CROSSES

The first train has passed over the Mohaka Viaduct, on the Napier-Wairoa section of the East Coast railway (states a Napier correspondent). It is anticipated that the line will be handed over by the Public Works Department to the Railway Department at the end of the present year for regular goods and. passenger services. AU that now remains to be done is the completion of the ballasting of the line and the erection of the necessary fences, sidings, and station; buildings.! No official ceremony greeted . the arrival of a small locomotive and eight trucks at the northern end of the great viaduct. The train was run across as part ■of the work in hand and others will be run during the week for the same purpose, but the fact remains that the largest railway bridge in the Southern Hemisphere has now. been completed and is in use. The! small train carried with it men and material needed for the continuance of the work at the Wairoa side of the viaduct, passing where no train has been before. , . Almost immediately work will begin on the construction of a station and yards at Mohaka, about a quarter of » mile north of the viaduct. Most of the material used for this will bei hauled over the viaduct by work trains. Part of this task has already j been completed. Work will progress for some months on ballasting the line, the erection of fences and road cross-, ings, and the completion, renovation, I and construction of station buildings, yards, and sidings.