NEW RAILWAY YARDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 270, 4 February 1928, Page 12

NEW RAILWAY YARDS

WORK PROGRESSING SUNDAY OPERATIONS Day by day the Auckland railway yard is gradually being remodelled. Even while long rakes of trucks are being shunted hither and thither workmen go ahead with their work, often under considerable difficulty. It is all part of the plan which will eventually result In new and up-to-date yards and the new' railway station. On Sunday an army of workmen will be engaged in arduous and improtant work which can be done only when the yards are not in use. Time is the essence of the contract, and the work, which will be started at 6.30 o'clock on Sunday morning, will be finished at 8.30 in the evening. Between 80 and 100 men will be engaged in making connections to the “wharf exchange” sidings and moving a "shunting ladder" six chains long. Thirty chains of track will have to be pulled up and 25 chains laid again. Numerous sets of points and crossings will have to be moved and 14 new sets, including a large “scissors” crossing, will have to be laid. One of the most important operations will be the lifting of a 25-ton truck weighbridge, and its installation in a new pit six chains away. Last Saturday afternoon a start was made on the excavation and concreting of the pit, which is in the middle of the present shunting yard. Railway tracks adjacent to the pit were carried on beams to allow' the men to work and to allow shunting operations to go ahead without interference. Men worked all Sunday and the concreting was finished last Monday evening. By the coming Monday evening the weighbridge will be in position. Work of this description requires much careful thought and preliminary preparation. Mr. J. Dow, engineer, new w'orks, and Mr. G. McLeod, inspector of permanent way, have the details complete and will supervise the work. The men will be drawn from the Auckland yard and Otahuhu workshops construction gangs and from the department’s ballast pit at Mount Smart.