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Salient. Special Salient Issue. Careers Information Week. 1961

Railway Mechanical Engineering

Railway Mechanical Engineering

Responsibility for the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of railway locomotives and rolling stock, and of the associated workshops, falls upon the shoulders of the railway mechanical engineers. Steam, diesel, and electric locomotives, multiple-unit electric trains, diesel railcars, and passenger and freight vehicles of all kinds come under their care.

A major transformation in this field in recent years, and still taking place, is the steady changeover from steam to diesel traction. With both human, technological, and financial problems involved, this is no light task.

The mechanical loading traversers—the first of their kind in the world — used to facilitate cargon loading of the New Zealand Railways-controlled inter-island air freight service were designed by railway mechanical engineers. Recently, too, they designed, in conjunction with the suppliers of the electronic equipment used, an electronic Rail-Air weighbridge which shows the weight of each cargon and whether the load is correctly distributed over the cargon to maintain aircraft trim. The development and improvement of workshop techniques applied in the nine New Zealand Railways Workshops is yet another aspect of the railway mechanical engineer's versatility.

As with the civil engineering branch, this branch offers wide scope for engineers with initiative and drive.