D.—4 a

74

RETURN V. POINTS AND CROSSINGS. Tenders received by Public Works Department for 133 sets of Points and Crossings, being 20 sets 70 lb., 103 sets 56 lb., and 10 sets 40 lb. July, 1906. | _ [Supplied by Railway Department.] £ s. d. New Zealand Railways .. .. .. .. .. 1,436 10 0 A. and T. Burt, Dunedin . . .. . . .... 1,500 10 0 Dispatch Foundry, Greymouth . . .. .. .. 1,715 0 0 Judd, Thames .. .. .. .. .. .. 1,779 15 0 Fraser, Auckland .. .. .. .. .. .. 2,448 15 0 The tender of New Zealand Railways was accepted.

[New Zealand Railways.] CONTRACT FOR THE MANUFACTURE AND SUPPLY OF POINTS AND CROSSINGS. Specification. 1. The work included under this contract is the manufacture and supply of one hundred sets of points and crossings, together with all necessary fittings, castings, fastenings, switch-boxes, and other equipments, and executing all work required to be done in the manufacture of the same, as shown upon the drawings attached hereto, and as set forth in this specification. 2. Fifty of the sets shall be made to a crossing-angle of 1 in 9, and fifty sets shall be made to a crossing-angle of lin 7J. The splice in the frog shall be made half for right hand and half for left hand in each angle. The measurement of the angle of crossing shall be for a right-angled triangle. 3. The points and crossings, including switches, stock-rails, wings, and frogs, shall be made from rails weighing 70 lb. to the lineal yard. The Railway Department will supply the Contractor with the number of rails required for the work. These rails will be delivered at the nearest railway-station to the Contractor's works within two weeks of the Contractor applying to the Railway Storekeeper. Spare lengths made by cutting shall be returned to the Railway Department. Any further quantity of rails required by the Contractor shall be paid for by him. Should the Railway Department fail to deliver the rails within the time specified, the Contractor shall have no claim for compensation of any kind, but he will be allowed a corresponding extension of time for the completion of his contract. The ends of the frog-rails, wing-rails, and switches shall be properly drilled where requisite to take of the fish-plates, a sample of which will be supplied to the Contractor upon applicationr~~-~-^^^^ 5. The switch-raits-ar<3 to be accurately bent and planed. The rods, bolts, keys, pins, and other wrought-iron work are to fitted, and finished. The guard-rails shall be bent to the forms shown, and holes drilled in tMSrieiUihe bolts through the distance-blocks. The contract does not include the cutting or boring of the rails^o~wtichthe guard-rails are shown to be bolted on the drawings. Rails requiring to be cut shall be cut by saw. No cut shall be made by " setts." 6. All bolts shall be cut with a full clean thread, and the nuts similarly tapped to a good fit. The cotter-bolts shall have clean true slots, with the cotters accurately fitted to thesanie. All bolt-holes in rails shall be drilled. ~~\_^^ 7. All the slide-chairs shall be fitted smooth on the surface in contact with the foot of the rails, and where required the chairs shall be thickened for a portion of their length to form a raised fillet of the respective thicknesses shown on the drawings for each set. 8. All the switches shall have levers of the pattern lettered " A " on the drawings. 9. Blocks for guard-rails, frogs, and centres of wings, switch-boxes, weights for switch-handles, and sockets for switch-handles and connecting-rods to be of cast iron. Switch-handles, bell-cranks, distance-rods, connecting-rods, and chairs, with their studs and collars, to be of wrought iron. Rail-braces are to be of pressed steel.