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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 10 (February 1, 1928)

Maintenance of Tracks

Maintenance of Tracks.

The enormous annual consumption of permanent-way equipment on the Home railways calls for the maintenance of elaborate manufacturing works, and a visit paid a short time ago by the members of the Permanent Way Institution to the Redbridge permanent-way factory of the Southern Railway, directed attention to this important phase of railway activity.

Gleneaglea Station, L. M. & S. Railway, Scotland.

Gleneaglea Station, L. M. & S. Railway, Scotland.

Manufacturing processes conducted at Red-bridge comprise the drilling and creosoting of sleepers, casting of chairs, and preparing timbers of all descriptions for bridge page 21 and other works. The sleepers are stored in huge piles, each containing 400 sleepers, and after seasoning for from six to twelve months, they are run on trucks to the drilling-shed, and then sent forward for creo-soting. For this operation the sleepers pass into creosoting cylinders on trolleys. The cylinders are 75 feet in length and 7 feet in diameter, and each cylinder holds 464 sleepers. The air tight door being sealed, air is pumped out of the cylinder and creosote drawn in at a pressure of 200lb. per square inch. Two hours complete the pickling process, and then the sleepers are removed from the cylinder and the chairs affixed. The sleepers, with chairs complete, are next automa-matically conveyed to, and dropped on, timber wagons ready for despatch. These chaired sleepers are turned out at the rate of 1,200 per day, and the Redbridge plant ranks as one of the most important permanent-way factories in Britain.