Railways Seek Greater Efficiency

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 52, 24 May 1927, Page 9

Railways Seek Greater Efficiency

WORKSHOP SCHEMES TRAINING OF APPRENTICES (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Monday. progress is being made with the programme of reorganisation of the New Zealand railways workshops under the scheme of the Minister of Railways, said Mr. E. T. Spidy, workshop superintendent, when questioned to-day. Ail preparation work on sites that had to be undertaken by the Railway Department before the contractors could start has been completed, and the contractors are now busy on the sites putting in foundations and concrete-side-walls for new workshop buildings. The first consignment of structural steel has now arrived from England for the ITutt Valley workshops, and it is hoped that it will come in increasing quantities from now on.

“We are still waiting for foundation bolts for the South Island workshops,” he said. “Steel from England has up to the present moment delayed the programme. This is traceable to the the big coal strike of last year. Quite a lot of the new machinery ordered last year has now come to hand and is being installed on arrival. Some of the larger machines, however, have quite evidently been delayed for the same reasons that are delaying the steel.

“Tenders for overhead travelling cranes and other material and moving equipment closed recently, and we are very busy at the present time analysing all tenders received. This analysis and selection of tenders is being done by various committees set up by the Minister—one for buildings, another for machinery, and another for electrical equipment. These committees comprise the chief officers of the Railway Department and are supplemented by experts from the Public Works Department. “The apprentice instruction classes set up by the department last year are also making good progress, although, it will take a few years to get the results that are aimed at. While in Australia recently I had an opportunity of inspecting the arrangements on the Victorian railways and saw the results obtained there, and their system can only be pronounced an unqualified success. Results there have not only been a direct gain to the department by the increased knowledge that the apprentice brings to his work, which is in itself very great, but it has resulted in a very much higher grade of boys applying for apprenticeship than obtained prior to the inauguration of th?ir system. For instance, their last, .eport shows that approximately 80 per cent, of the boys enrolled were trained in technical schools prior to their apprenticeship. “It is the intention, with regard to the New Zealand Railways for the ap-prentice-training course to synchronise our requirements with regular technical school courses as soon as possible, and at a later date it may be possible for us to arrange that examinations conducted by the Railway Department will be those approved by the technical schools’ boards, and possibly under their supervision, so that certificates will carry the same standing as those of the Technical Education Department. Our difficulty at the present time, and tViis makes progress a little slow, is due to the fact that a large majority of our boys can only be classed as “first year” on account of lack of proper instruction, but this matter will rectify itself in the course of time. None of these things is done in a minute. However, slow but sure, is the only safe way so long as it is not too slow.”

INCREASED PRODUCTION

NEW SYSTEM AT NEWMARKET

Increased output of railway cars and spare parts has been made possible by the reorganisation of the working system at Newmarket yards. Mr. E. T. Spidy, superintendent of workshops for the New Zealand Railways, lias been responsible for the scheme. New machines and gear have been imported. A lathe which weighs 43 tons is used for turning locomotive wheel tyres, and an up-to-date planing machine is a faster and more efficient worker than the old type. For the truck-construction department, new wood-working machines are being imported, and these will speed, up the work considerably. This department is now capable of turning out trucks in numbers unheard of previously in New Zealand. To-day five trucks under construction will be finished in about eight days. New Zealand materials are used as much as possible, and the frames are of kauri and Australian hardwood. All under-frames are made locally with the exception of springs and axles. In the photograph which appears in to-day’s pictorial section, one of the trucks is shown. An X A type, it will be used for the carriage of fruit. The modern machinery will not mean increased unemployment, for the railways are rapidly expanding, and, therefore, more stock is required. When the Otahuhu workshops arc finished the greater part of the machinery now used will be transferred, and that which is not suitable for use under the reorganisation scheme will be sold.