THE WELLINGTON AND MASTERTON RAILWAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4899, 4 December 1876, Page 3

THE WELLINGTON AND MASTERTON RAILWAY.

' (BY OCR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) • Somehow or another the : dwellers •iu the neighborhood of the, works,.going on, oh-the' aliorc railway seem to' consider, that walking over those Works is fan accomplishment only fitting for peJ|nle who have no other-object in existence. Upton getting'to' the Upper.Hutt on Friday eve&ing last, hand mentioning (m arswerto inW&ies) that I and a proprietor of tlie,Press Agi-Jicy purposed personally inspect-. ing the railwayVorks, I found myself and my companies/ regarded from three different standpoints/Rlmely, the jocular, the sympathising, and the: satirical,.', 'Those who addressed us from the. first hinted that. upon getting tired, after accomplishing.: half-a-mile of our task, they could t’pil. tts a short cnt by which to get back. The sympathising suggested boots of a particularahapo for the frightful walking be*fore us, aiid recommended cabbage leaves carried in the interior ol the hat as a Sure preventative of sunstroke. The satirical were good, enough to gay that ! there wore plenty of carpenters along the line who could - knock np a couple of bush coffins in no time. It may, be; pardonable to m-ntion that “conversation of - this class induced us to go to bed 5 early in order to bo ready for herculean feats. In the case of my companion, this paving with good intentions was rooted npby the advent toourho te 1, at one o’clock in'the morning. Of three Qistmguished citizens on their .way to a wedding at Carterton. Having ascertamed who were in . the , house, they roused up my friend to enjoy himself with them for a couple of hours, and only let me sleep'on upon the distinct ‘ understanding that my friend would consume the refreshment necessary for both, which ha did, and . which kindness upon the earliest opportunity I shall repay him. Amidst the undisguised Contempt of the people of the Upper Hutt, and the 'ironical cheering of a coachfnl of passengers, we set out, under abroiling sun, r on Saturday morning, at the com-, mencement of i , '

m'kibDt’s CONTRACT, . ' ; which 13 19 miles from Wellington; And ina very short time it became palpable that, the workmen. the line was of a different' and far heavier ' character than that on the port'on now open'for traffic. The line runs up to the first tunnel near Cruickshank’s on an incline of 1 in 33, and in ithe space ; of two-miles includes no leria than fifteen cuttings, and an equal number of embankments, many of them being very deep and heavy, _ One -in especial of the embankments,'met with; almost immediately after leaving ,the Upper Hutt, passes in a curve along, the lower part of a deep imlly, and is 73ft. in height at its part and 13' chains in length..' It is pierced at the level of the watercourse in the gully by a buck culvert' of 240 ft in length, sft. in height, and 4ft. in width,* with concrete facings of the most -solid-description. - The whole of this portion of the Hoc folloivs as much as possible what may be .called the contour of the hills, at an elevation which, ■ gradually increasing, soon gets,very' far above the level of the Hutt river. Passing along by cuttings through the noses of tiie spurs and embankments across the gnlly, it reaches the tunnel previously mentioned, however, without ample,evidence, in the shape of numerous slips, of thetreacherous nature of the soil," to which I purpose presently- directing Some attention, , as I am confident that it will enlighten the public very much as to the very great difficulties presented in the construction of, this railway, and will enable them to nnderatandthat of which personal inspection might convince the most ignorant, namely,;that instead of, being dissatisfied. we should be perfectly , contented with the progress made on all the contracts ; for what applies to the one now under notice, applies, as will be seen, even in a greater degree to those further on- The deepest cutting in this, section occurs at the place just described, at a distance of 20 miles 4 chains from Wellington. It is 60ft. in depth., .■■■ , r ‘ The tunnel is J39yards in length, and 1 may say seems a perfectly unnecessary work, for. the small saddle it passes,through could have been traversed without .any difficulty by a . cutting bridged over in one part to admit of the passage of the tramway in .connection with Crnickahank’s saw mill, which, in addition to crossing a portion, of the MUabove the tunnel, - has to be carried oyer the; cutting in front of it on a strong bridge. The. mill , race is also, encountered in the tunnel itself;, and is passed , by means of a massive culvert. Upon mounting the hill through which the tunnel is made, a very fine view,of the Mungaroa valley is obtained,, and / at one’s, feet are the-kilns in which -the bricks used for I lining . the tnnnel were-' burned,The tunnel,is lined .for, 7ft. 6in. on-’ either... side with .concrete, above which, on -the Mungaroa side,' -rises a pointed gothic arch, three bricks in,thickness, formed of two arches; r with a. radius of 7ft. Sin, each.' About two chains in the point disappears, and an ordinary rounded arch takes its place for the. rest.*of, the tunnel. ..There were used ‘-"iii——the .construction * of the lining, I may mention, some:150,000 bricks ; and a slip at the Mungaroa face necessitated very heavy .work, besides which ther tunnel itself 'required most substantial timbering during its whole progress. The lining is almost, it may be said, finished. Upon emerging from the tnnnel, theline crosses the Mungaroa river, on a pile bridge of ,19 spans of 26ft. each''and ,one .of, lift. From this it runs in a-perfectly straight* line -across theMnngaroa valley,- and it may be ’said, is, with the exception of the. permanent way, praC- * tically finished up to that point. The walk across the valley is not uninteresting. In froht are the Mungaroa ranges, leaf clad to ~the summit, and only wanting the'lawns and wind- ; ing gladesof “Enoch Arden” tomaketheroseem' 1 like ways high up to Heaven. The bnsh has been cleared for a, fair distance on each side of the line, and the/burned up tree stumps, tranks, and branches serve as a foil varying foliage of'the-dense verdure behind, in which every now and then,a small glade or opening, cool and overshadowed by leaves, . seems to tempt the traveller to-leave the glaring sun-heated soil;-and wander into, the woods. i , , „ Upon reaching the further side of the valley it is at - once easily seen that the portion of the works upon which moat active operations are being carried has been reached, ■ The works' on the spurs before' coming to No. 1, or Craickshank’s tunnel, is through open country, and though the cuttings are deep and fhe embankments correspondingly high, the hills are rounded, and their , sides are. not particularly steep. But,we now, come upon a* country thick with tall trees and a dense nnderbusb, with almost precipitous gullies, and’ through which the survey of the line must.have been most difficult. The soil, too, is as treacherous as ever, and is of what, for want of a , technical term, I may call of so sloppy a character that whole embanknients slide away ( or shrink, whilst in the cuttings it literally flows in frequent slips. From here tothe Pakuratahistation ■ is but a succession of difficult cuttings and equally difficult embankments, the clay for which as it is turned out in the trolleys can be plainly seen to be saturated, by water. The deepest of these cuttings is about 60ft., and d 0 men are at work on it, many of them working twelve hours,, and, consequently, at the cost of overtime, making handsome wages. In many a case an embankment has been known: to fall away-to the extent of 15ft. iii length during the night, .and in one place the debvia can be plainly seen where a slip in l the gully above carried: an embankment bodily 50yds.,dawn . from its proper position. At a distance of 25 miles 46 chains from. Wellington, some of the heaviest atone work on the line is reached, in ; the shape of abutments of stone and cement, for a bridge oyer a creek. The abutments' are 26ft. 16in. in Height,'with-foundations of. 6ft., and wero.once all carried right away; and had ' to be rebuilt, At 24 miles 21 chains is No. 2 in length; which it is purposed to comment® 'lining on Monday. The tim-berings-throng this tunnel- is ‘of the very stoutest great deal In labor and money. J ' : Bad as slips have been on the line. they have been worst of all in the cutting through/ the Mungaroa ; saddle, where the soil on either side has literally ran away in places. The summit of this cutting is 872 ft. above sea level, and the permanent way will be -831 ft. above the same level. -The line runs all through the neighborhood, in quickly joining curves

of '5 chains radius, .loading- to the Eakuratahi station, where we once more come on road, the last sight previously of which was obtained before entering No.-l tunnel- 1* is quite probable that .the, line might be. opened for* traffic as far" as,this point ini time; fo? next, wool season, but as the lininigof No., 3 t ' , “ n . e L will • take fully six months to complete,' and as the permanent way will have to be laid 1 in addition, whilst'there is much heavyworlc to be got through at the Mungaroa, it le not reasonable to expect that, the line, eoul completed for traffic any sooner. H, lt t , can finished by that time however, it will become a question whether its opening would not be availed of by carriers and others, in order to avoid the Mungaroa hiU. ' Of courße it would, cause the passenger traffic b y„ c l oach , ‘? have its terminus here. The -Pakuratahi station; T may inention, is'26 miles- 62 cbmnß> from the present Wellington terminus;- ihe engineers had laid out the line after ltd passing this station; so that its construction ? would involve s- level crossing and' a • bridge over the coach road, but Messrs. McKirdy and Oakes (the latter’s contract joins that of the former just here) pointed out that by_an easy diversion of the road the crossing and bridge might beAvoided. iAccordingly, both gentlemen are now at work on this diversion, whilst passing, which Mr. McKirdy’s - contract ends, at a distance of 26 miles 78 chains from Wellington. - • - ______