NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS. MEMORANDUM BY MR. J.L. SCOTT, LATE RAILWAY COMMISSIONER, ON LOCOMOTIVE AND MAINTENANCE WORKSHOPS, WITH REPLIES BY THE LOCOMOTIVE SUPERINTENDENT AND CHIEF ENGINEER.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1895 Session I, D-02a

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1895. NEW ZEALAND.

NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS. MEMORANDUM BY MR. J.L. SCOTT, LATE RAILWAY COMMISSIONER, ON LOCOMOTIVE AND MAINTENANCE WORKSHOPS, WITH REPLIES BY THE LOCOMOTIVE SUPERINTENDENT AND CHIEF ENGINEER.

Laid on the Table with the Leave of the House.

No. 1 Mr J L. Scott to the Hon. the Peemiee. Sir, — Government Buildings, Wellington, 31st December, 1894. I cannot close my term of office without adding to what has been said by my colleagues a few remarks on various matters to which my instincts and previous training have led me to give special attention, and upon which they have fitted me to form correct opinions. I allude to some serious defects in the management of the Maintenance and Locomotive Departments of the railway service. The maintenance workshops are equipped and conducted in a primitive style which is positively astounding. No one other than a country blacksmith who has not sufficient work to keep more modern appliances employed, or the means to purchase them if he had, would think of continuing such a state of things as exists in these workshops. The same system obtains from one end of the colony to the other In illustration, let me say that on my last visit to Dunedin I saw one man turning an iron spindle in a treadle-lathe, two others working a vertical hand-power drillingmachine, and another working a manual-power boring-machine, making droppers for wire fences, of which hundreds are used. I shall be well within the mark if I say that these men were not doing more than one-fourth of the work they could have been doing with better appliances. At each centre this department has one or more blacksmiths at work. These men, with their assistants, with the exception of two at Christchurch, are working at hand-blown forges, emulating Longfellow's village blacksmith. What makes it still worse is that they are at work the greater part of their time on railway metals, which they are manipulating in various ways, either for use in the road, for gate-posts, verandah supports, bridge-work, &c. Such work is altogether too heavy for hand-blown fires, supposing they were excusable for lighter work, which they are not. No private employer would dream of doing such work with similar appliances. If he had no better tools himself he would send on the work to some one who had. I may remark, in passing, that the fancy this department has for using up old rails for all sorts of purposes is a mistaken and costly one. There is for the time being a ready sale for all the old rails. When this falls off there will still be a large field for their use as telegraph-poles, to which purpose I am pleased to see the present able head of the Telegraph Department has been putting them. Here they may be utilised without any great waste of labour. Taken all through, I do not hesitate to say that the work done in the workshops of the Maintenance Department costs, at a very low estimate, from 50 to 75 per cent, more than it ought, while a great deal of it ought either not to be done at all, or done in an altogether different manner The remedy for this waste of labour is to close these shops altogether until the department has grown large enough to»keep works of fair size and with more modern appliances fully employed, and to transfer the men and their work to the Locomotive Department. In every centre the Locomotive Department has spare engine-blown fires with steam-hammers and all other necessary appliances, while the blacksmiths in the Maintenance Department " grunt and sweat under the weary life " of doing heavy work in hand-blown fires without any of the necessary accessories. These remarks will not, of course, be taken as reflecting in any way upon the workmen in this department. They are a steady, industrious, and intelligent lot of men, and are doing the best they can with the appliances and facilities afforded them. Having referred to the condition and equipment of the maintenance workshops, I will briefly refer in the same direction to those of the Locomotive Department. The Addington workshops, which are the largest in the colony, are really well equipped and splendidly manned. They have now nearly all the tools necessary for carrying out railway work of

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every description, and the work done in these shops is of a first-class character The Hillside workshops are very commodious, but are wanting in some very essential tools, principally in the boilermaking department. A new planing-machine in this shop would recoup its full value in a couple of years. The workshops at Petone, Newmarket, and Eastown are each of them capable of doing all the repairs of their respective districts, while the two former are also large enough to do an additional quantity of new work. It is when we come to the character and cost of some of the work that is being done in these shops that we find room for adverse criticism. Let me refer to a number of locomotive conversions that have been going on. Eight locomotives of what is known as the F class, with lOJin. diameter cylinders, have been converted into a new class, F a , with 12in. cylinders, and boilers carrying a higher pressure. Two of these conversions, which have been effected at the Addington shops, have cost £2,174 each. Six others, effected in various parts of the colony, have cost an average of over £1,900 each. In the first case the boilers were made at Addington, in the latter the boilers were imported. There are two others of these Fto F" conversions still to be completed, which will cost, so far as can at present be seen, more than any of the previous ones. Two L class engines have been similarly converted to a new class, L", at a cost of £1,980 each. These are also conversions of 10|in. cylinders to 12in. cylinders, with boilers at higher pressure. There can be no doubt that these twelve conversions represent to the colony a loss of as many thousands of pounds. It is very doubtful if engines of the new types were needed, the design being faulty in various respects. Assuming, however, that engines of the same power were needed, new ones of better proportions and design could have been built easily for the money these alterations have cost. This would have left the twelve engines of the F and L types intact. As the boilers of these engines became worn out they could have been refitted with boilers at the higher pressure at about one-third the cost of the conversions. These new boilers, with no other alteration than a little added weight and any necessary strengthening of parts to suit the increased pressure, would have increased the tractive power of the engines very materially. New spare cylinders to suit these engines are in stock by the dozen, waiting to replace the old ones as they become worn out. Only a day or two ago I counted ten of these spare cylinders lying in a row at the Eastown Workshop, where they have been for some time. It will be seen that even had the engines that have been altered needed new boilers and cylinders and other general or even extraordinary repairs, after allowing the excessively large sum of £1,000 each to effect these repairs and alterations (the amount would now almost build new engines), there would still be £1,000 to £1,200 left out of the cost of each of these conversions towards building new engines of increased power and improved type. But the cost of effecting these alterations is out of all proportion to the value of the work that has been done, and reflects very seriously on the management of the department. Here, and not in the workshops, the fault lies. The causes are obvious to a business expert, and involve a remodeling of the methods of the department. This mania for conversion has also extended to the alteration of tw.o engines, one each of the N and O classes, which are to be converted to compounds. Now, while I have every confidence in the use of higher boiler pressures, and the adaptability of the compound principle to locomotive practice, and while I believe that the New Zealand Eailway Department should build, at any rate, some of its new locomotives embodying these principles, I have no doubt that the conversion of the two engines above mentioned is a mistake, and that it will cost the colony quite as much as two new engines, leaving again two engines to debit. Another instance of mistaken zeal in this direction is the alterations that have been made from time to time to an engine of the M class, No. 90, on which, up to the present, some £392 has been spent in experimenting without any good result. Here, again, let me say that I find no fault with the department for carrying out experiments. New Zealand ought to do its share in experimenting for the good of itself and others, but these experiments should at least be carried on intelligently, with a well-defined end in view, and should not consist of blindly and deviously following in the wake of previous experiments altogether doubtful of the consequence of the variations. Four new engines of a larger type than any hitherto running on the Government Eailways, having cylinders 16in. diameter, 20in. stroke, and with driving-wheels 54in. in diameter, are now being built in the Addington Workshops. Up to the present one only of these has been completed. The cost of the work on these four engines up to date has been £12,000, enough to have completed them. It will be interesting to -know, on the completion of these engines, what the cost of construction has been. Out of all proportion, doubtless, to their value. I have only indicated one or two directions in which the management is capable of improvement. A competent man will readily place his finger on numerous others. I have no hesitation in saying that if the Locomotive Department were allowed to take over the workshops of the Maintenance Department, and the whole placed under better management, many thousands of pounds per annum could be saved to the colony over and above any amounts that may be visible in tabulated statements of salaries or running-expenses. In conclusion, I wish to add that nothing I have said as to the cost of work is intended to reflect in any way upon the men in the various workshops. So far as I have been able to judge, and I have watched very closely so that I might be able to form a correct opinion, the various railway workshops are manned by artizans who will compare favourably with those of any engineering establishment in the world. Wherever I went I found the men going about their work with skill and industry I have invariably found them reasonable in their demands, orderly in their conduct, and intelligent, and lam glad of this opportunity of bearing testimony to the superior character of the men throughout the railway service, both as regards their ability and conduct. I have, &c, John L. Scott, The Hon. the Premier Eailway Commissioner

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No. 2. The Chief Engineer to the Geneeal Manageb of Eailways. Chief Engineer's Office, Working Eailways Department, Wellington, 19th March, 1895. (Memorandum.) Maintenance Shops. I have read Mr. Scott's memorandum of the 31st December, 1894, as you requested me. In my memorandum of the 17th January last I have stated the objects in view in keeping the means of doing maintenance work in the hands of the Maintenance Department, and the great objection of making the Maintenance Department entirely dependent on the locomotive workshops for obtaining prepared material for the works. I have no hesitation in saying that Mr Scott has overstated the case. Moreover, while he held office as Commissioner he had many opportunities of representing to me what he has written here, but he did not do so. This memorandum represents his view that the maintenance operations are extravagant in the directions indicated. He never once hinted at such a thing to me, nor suggested the need for an alteration. J Henby Lowe, The General Manager Chief Engineer

No. 3. The Locomotive Supeeintendent to the Genebal Manager of Eailways. Locomotive Superintendent's Office, Wellington, 9th July, 1895. (Memorandum.) Mr. J L. Scott's Beport upon the Locomotive Department. In reference to Mr J L. Scott's memorandum dated the 31st December, 1894, addressed to the Hon. the Premier, it is observed that he is generally complimentary about the workshops, both as to the equipment and character of work done. The conversions of class F locomotives to class F a was decided in 1891 by the Eailway Commissioners. Five were converted in 1892, two in 1893, and two in 1894. When Mr Scott was a Eailway Commissioner he had special control of locomotive matters, and in May, 1894, was informed that five first-class F locomotives were under conversion to F a Had Mr Scott the slightest objection to the type of locomotive, or considered it inexpedient in any way to build such engines, he could at that time have stopped the work. He, however, did not raise any objections, nor did he at any time point out any defect in the design. The engines have been very successful, and have saved a considerable mileage. Similarly the L a locomotives have proved most successful in every respect. Therefore I cannot admit that the department has made any loss on these conversions. Mr. Scott's assertion re " the cost of alteration being out of proportion to the value of the work done," &c, cannot be admitted, and, although Mr Scott claims that the causes are obvious, &c, yet, if they existed, he never pointed them out, nor gave any instructions to have them remedied. The " compounding" referred to was approved by the Commissioners, and I am not aware that Mr Scott ever raised any objection to it. The experiments on M9O have been carried out in a fairly intelligent manner, and Mr Scott appeared to be rather interested in them, and requested that they should be continued. I cannot admit Mr Scott's assertion re the cost of new locomotives. T F Eotheram, The General Manager. Locomotive Superintendent. Approximate Cost of Paper. —Preparation not given; printing (1,400 copies), £2 2s. 6d. By Authority: Samuel Costall, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB9s. Price 3d.]