ELECTRIFICATION OF PORT LINE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 November 1928, Page 3

ELECTRIFICATION OF PORT LINE

THE LOCOMOTIVES.

CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 7

Tile first, shipment of electric locomotives for the Christchurch-Lyttelton railway will arrive at Lyttelton tomorrow on the Hertford. This shipment will comprise three engines, which have been sent out from England fully assembled and will be dropped from the ship’s slings on to the railway tracks on the Lyttelton wharf.

All that will be necessary after they have been landed is for tbe drawbars to be fitted, the bearings oiled up and the steam locomotive to haul them to the sheds, where they will lie housed until their trials. Those will not take place until the power is available on tbe Lyttelton line. After tbe trials they will be painted and put into service. It is hoped to have the electrical service in operation before Christmas.

The total weight of each of the locomotives is fifty tons, and special facilities will be provided to unload them from the vessel’s bold. In running order they will be capable of a speed of forty miles an hour and the maximum gross weight of the train tonnage they can haul is G(>o long tons. They will bo driven by a line voltage of Lino rolls, direct current. They arc of the engine type known as 0-1-4-0. with a Oft bin gauge. Tie* rigid wheel base is 9ft Jin and the total win'd base twenty-eight feet. The length over the buffer beams is .‘KSH (jin, the height lo the centre of the roof I Oft Gin, and the overall width Bft 4in.