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

Record Haulage Feat

page 8

Record Haulage Feat

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.

A Tribute to Locomotive Drivers

In a recent issue of the “Railway Gazette” mention is made of a very interesting paper entitled “Signalling from a Driver's Point of View,” presented at a meeting of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers by Mr. W. J. Thorrowgood, Signal and Telegraph Superintendent of the Southern Railway. The figures given by Mr. Thorrowgood are eloquent of a degree of reliability on the part of locomotive enginemen deserving of the highest commendation. Mr. Thorrowgood, stated that the number of collisions during 1924—the latest year for which returns are available—due to drivers passing signals in the “on” position was three. There are 38,180 engine drivers in Great Britain, so that the ratio is one failure for every 12,727 men. There were three collisions due to enginemen failing to give effect to regulations or to misjudgments, and five due to divided responsibility, and if the whole eleven accidents are taken as applicable to drivers, then there was one collision to every 3,289 men per annum. A driver, it may be taken, travels 130 miles per day for 326 days in the year, thus the figures prove that one collision takes place for every 138,960,000 train miles run. This small number of collisions shows the high degree of efficiency of locomotive drivers and the care they take.

Huge Railway Storehouse

What is claimed to be the largest railway store-house in the Southern Hemisphere has just been put into service at Spotswood, Melbourne, for the Victorian State Railways. The building is a solid concrete structure and stands on twelve acres of ground near the railway station. An area of ground adjoining has been secured for possible extensions. In this huge store-house, stock of an estimated value of £5,000,000 will be handled during the year.

Two recent retirements on superannuation at Hillside Workshops are those of Mr. A. J. A. Smith and Mr. J. Robertson.

Mr. Smith has completed 40 years' service which, with the exception of 18 months as Foreman Boilermaker at Newmarket, was spent at Hillside Workshops where he served his apprenticeship, and retired as Senior Foreman Boilermaker.

Mr. J. Robertson has completed 30 years service, all of which he served at Hillside. At the time of his retirement he was Leading Machinist in charge of the machines at Hillside.