Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 6, Issue 5 (November 2, 1931)

Current Comments

page 17

Current Comments

Retired!

“For the first time in his life he has been able to attend properly to his own business.” That is how one superannuated public servant, with forty years spent in one Department, welcomes relief from the cares of State affairs. Another, who has turned to profitable use qualities developed in the course of pleasing clients in a business-getting railway job, found his early days of retirement so cluttered with social engagements that they became rather a nightmare to him, because, to use his own words, “he couldn't find time to keep them all.” Then comes one of our well-known retired officers to report that he has been on superannuation now for three months, and he finds so many things to do in his “retired” life that “it seems like three weeks.” But the best news of the day comes from his pal who retired from another Government job, and who has discovered so much to do about the home that “he doesn't know how he ever used to find time to go to work.”

Railway Officials Oblige.

A quick piece of work by the Railway Department earned the admiration and thanks of an Auckland motorist (says the Auckland Star). His two boys were bound South on football affairs, and he was seeing them off. One of the lads drove the car down to the railway station. After the farewells the father went out to where the car was parked, and discovered, to his dismay, that the doors were locked, and the boy who had driven them to the station had the keys in his pocket, bowling along at thirty miles an hour Wellington-wards. The father explained the position to the railway people.

An obliging official said he would see what could be done. The telephone got to work, word was sent to Papatoetoe, where the train was slowed down almost to a stop, the guard was told to get into touch with a lad in carriage “G” and inquire for the missing keys, which were to be thrown out on the Papakura station platform. There was no difficulty in finding the boy, the keys were duly thrown out while the train dashed, past Papakura, and they were handed to the guard on the next down train, and within a hour the car owner drove off with them to his home.

Jobs Offered to 10,000 American Railroad Men.

According to John Austin, in the September Railroad Man's Magazine, jobs for 10,000 American railroad men are offered by the Russian Government, which is modernizing its 50,000-mile system—the world's largest rail system under unified control.

“Applications are being received at the rate of 200 a day,” says G. D. Ulanov-Zinoviev head of the People's Commissariat for Transportation, U.S.S.R., with offices at 245 Fifth Avenue, New York City. More than 250 Americans have already gone over. Wages offered are said to be the standard American scale, but living conditions are inferior and Russian railroading is scarcely out of the pioneer stage. Mr. Austin also warns of difficulty in exchanging roubles for dollars.

The U.S.S.R. railroad system has about 1,400,000 employees. Its budget allots £3,500,000,000 (3 ½ billion dollars) for modernization under the Five-year Plan, based on recommendations made by Ralph Budd, President, Great Northern Railway, St. Paul, Minn., who inspected the Soviet lines a year ago.

page break
Wellington's New Goods Terminal. This fine modern railway freight terminal was opened on 17th August last, and is already attracting fresh traffic on account of the case and expedition with which business can be handled there. The offices are on two floors, at the south end of the main shed. There are thrack capable of holding seventy-seven wagons. The building has both roof and wall lighting, and all freight, both outward and inward, is now handled under cover. The main driveway for road traffic within the shed is very spacious, being 165 yards long and 16 yards wide. There are three platforms (including one temporary loading platform outside the shed), having a total space of 2,288 square yards. (Inset, transport methods in the old days.)

Wellington's New Goods Terminal.
This fine modern railway freight terminal was opened on 17th August last, and is already attracting fresh traffic on account of the case and expedition with which business can be handled there. The offices are on two floors, at the south end of the main shed. There are thrack capable of holding seventy-seven wagons. The building has both roof and wall lighting, and all freight, both outward and inward, is now handled under cover. The main driveway for road traffic within the shed is very spacious, being 165 yards long and 16 yards wide. There are three platforms (including one temporary loading platform outside the shed), having a total space of 2,288 square yards. (Inset, transport methods in the old days.)

page 19
(Rly. Publicity photo.) Members of the party who inspected the new goods shed on 5th October, 1931.

(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Members of the party who inspected the new goods shed on 5th October, 1931.