STREAMLINED TRAIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 177, 28 June 1937, Page 8

STREAMLINED TRAIN

A GIANT FOR THE DOMINION

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, June 26. The largest streamlined electric motor ever built is now at Preston having the finishing touches put to it before it is shipped to New Zealand. The locomotive has been built at the Forth works of Hawthorn, Leslie and Co., and is to be employed on the electric line between AA’ellington and Paekakariki. The new giant has, of course, been constructed for a 3ft Gin gauge, and therefore could not bo placed on an English track, which is wider. Therefore the wheels were removed, and it was lifted by a 100-ton crane on to a .couple of sets of bogies of the standard English gauge. By this method it was taken to Preston for the final stage of the work. The locomotive is the first of ten similar engines which are to be constructed for the New Zealand Railways. The same firm will supply complete sets of material, drawings and ; patterns for the remaining nine, which iwill be constructed in the Dominion.

The engines will be employed to haul passenger, goods and mixed trains of up to 500 tons, the power being supplied by overhead cables and safety devices will protect the train crews against harm from the powerful voltage used.