400 Miles in 50 Minutes.

The first cousins to the platelaying gangs are the surfacemen, who follow up their work and add the finishing touches. When a new line is laid it at once falls into the zealous care of the surfacemen, who tend it as they tend daily every inch of railway line in New Zealand. These are the far-flung men that the travelling public see but in a flash, standing by the rails as the trains pass. But a great deal depends on their work, which is an important cog in the extraordinarily complete organisation that is the railway system of this country.

The permanent way, throughout the Dominion, is divided into sections of from 5 1/2 to 8 miles, to each of which there is a ganger and three surfacemen. Their daily

A Familiar Scene Along The Iron Way.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Typical huts occupied by permanent way men on the New Zealand Railways.

duty is to keep the line in good running order. They lift slacks—which means to lift up the rails that may have dropped below level—see that the curves are true to gauge and have a uniform cant, repair fences to prevent stock from wandering on to the line, and tighten up all bolts.

Water, because of the disturbing effect it has on the level of the line, is the enemy of all surfacemen, particularly in places like the Manawatu Gorge, where considerable quantities of water come down from the hills. It is when a slip occurs in the Gorge that work there becomes arduous, and instead of just water and grass to be removed there are tons of debris instead.

Two members of a gang of four live at either end of a section, and each morning they come together from opposite directions on their jiggers to the point where their work the day before ceased. Each gang working in similar fashion, the remarkable result is that the whole of the permanent way between Auckland and Wellington—426 miles—–is inspected daily between 7 a.m. and fifty minutes afterwards. On top of that, the men in charge of the gangs make a special inspection of their sections every Saturday. In addition, there are trips made by the inspectors of the permanent way and engineers, so that nothing is left to chance.