Contract Let for Lyttletoin Tunnel

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 114, 4 August 1927, Page 11

Contract Let for Lyttletoin Tunnel

ELECTRIFICATION SCHEME 1 50 M.P.H. LOCOMOTIVES Another step toward the longsought grimeless, smokeless tunnel between Christchurch and Lyttelton has now been made. The contract for the electrification of the port and city railway line has been let by the Minister of Railways to Messrs. Cory-Wright and Salmon, of Wellington, as agents for the English Electric Company. Ltd.. London. The supplying of six electric locomotives, costing approximately £50.000, sub-station equipment, and overhead gear is involved. The locomotives will be of a similar type to those used in the Otira tunnel section, but they will be designed for much higher speeds. They will be manufactured at the company’s works at Preston. Lancashire, and will be tested out on the company’s track before shipment to Lyttelton. 50 MILES AN HOUR Capable of maintaining a light running speed of 50 miles an hour, they will be designed to cope with the varying traffic between Lyttelton and Christchurch. This traffic consists of passenger trains, the South expresses, and goods trains up to 600 tons in weight. All the improvements and modifications which have been found desirable in the company’s wide experience in Great Britain, Franco. Japan. India, South America, Canada and Morocco, will, it is stated, be embodied in Lyttelton’s new engines. They will be supplied with a current of 1,500 volts D.C., by means of an overhead line, the current being collected by “pantographs” as in the Otira section. Each locomotive will be equipped with four traction motors with an aggregate continuous rating per locomotive of 900 horse-power.