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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 4 (August 24, 1926)

The Transportation from Auckland to Putaruru of Heavy Machinery for the Arapuni Hydro-Electric Power Station — Railway Arrangements Win Contractor's Praise

The Transportation from Auckland to Putaruru of Heavy Machinery for the Arapuni Hydro-Electric Power Station
Railway Arrangements Win Contractor's Praise

About five miles west of Putaruru the Waikato River flows through the Arapuni Gorge. This is the site which has been chosen for the power station which is to serve the Auckland province with electric power. The contractors for the whole scheme are Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company Ltd., who now have the work well in hand.

There is in the Power house about 750 tons of very heavy and bulky machinery. Some of it weights as much as 24 tons. The maximum sizes are:—Rotor rings 12 ft. 5 in. diameter by 10 in., quarter stators 15 ft. 10 in. by 10 ft. 7 in. by 6 ft. 6 in.
Rotor Rings loaded on Trucks

Rotor Rings loaded on Trucks

and transformer cores, which have to be placed with the greatest dimension vertical, 9 ft. 10 in. by 6 ft. 6 in. by 5 ft. 0 in.

It will be seen that the contractors were faced with a difficult problem in getting the machinery transported from Auckland to the power house site. Three routes offered themselves. The first was to load the machinery direct on to railway wagons at Auckland and rail it to Putaruru transferring it there to a trailer on which it was to be taken to the power station by a traction engine. The second was to load the machinery from the steamers on to scows at Auckland, tow it to Thames, transfer it to railway wagons, rail it to Putaruru and take it to the power house as in the first proposal. The third was to take it direct from the ship at Auckland to the power station site by road. On going into the question of rail transport from Auckland to Putaruru it was found that it was just possible to get the rotor rings (which gave the most trouble) through, by loading them so as to make an angle of about 60° to the vertical. On finding this out the contractors decided to forward the machinery by rail.

After this decision had been arrived at, preparations were made for the alterations to wagons necessary to transport the machinery. Two Ub wagons were fitted with special frames to take the rotor rings, and bodies of four “U” wagons were fitted with special frames to take the quarter stators. The first shipment of the machinery arrived a short time ago and was unloaded by the Auckland
After Passing Mercer Tunnel

After Passing Mercer Tunnel

Harbour Board's 80 ton floating crane and was loaded by it on to the wagons.

It was necessary to make sure that the loads did not foul any of the structures on the route before arrangements were made for forwarding them to Putaruru. An accurate template of the Parnell bridge was made and it was ascertained that no fouling would take place there. It was found that the rings fouled the Mercer tunnel by about one inch, on the low side. This could not be avoided as, if the rings were raised, the top portion of them would foul the portal strut of the Parnell bridge. It was therefore decided to run the loads through as they were loaded and take the necessary material for shifting the track in the Mercer Tunnel.

Owing to the danger to passengers of trains being passed by the wide loads and to the necessity for making a daylight trip, arrangements were made to transport the material with a special train on a Sunday. The speed page 9 of the train was limited to a minimum of 20 miles per hour on straights, 10 miles per hour on sharp curves and two miles per hour when passing structures with small clearance.

The train left at 7 a.m. soon after daylight, and went through the Parnell bridge with a minimum clearance of half an inch at the top and bottom of the rings. No further trouble was met with until the Mercer tunnel was reached. It was found here that the rings fouled the tunnel lining by one inch just inside the northern portal. There were jacks on board the train so two of these were requisitioned to shift the track over. When this was done the train was run through at about two miles per hour and no further fouling occurred in the tunnel.

The only other point where the loads came near fouling was at the Ngaruawahia bridge where a minimum clearance of 5 inches was obtained.

Passing through Ngaruawahia Bridge

Passing through Ngaruawahia Bridge

It was necessary to run the train through the loop at Morrinsville as the quarter stators fouled the station verandah which is very low.

The train arrived at Putaruru shortly after dark, ahead of schedule time and without any further trouble.

The photographs show the train at various places “en route” and indicate how bulky some of the packages really were.

Although the transportation of this machinery would be a small matter for broader gauge railways where the loading gauge has considerably larger dimensions it is quite a feat for a narrow gauge line.

The representative of Sir. W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., expressed his thanks for the expeditious and careful way in which the material was handled by the Department. The last of the material was unloaded on Saturday and arrived at its destination on Sunday about 24 hours later.