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The Board'S Message
Rolling Stock Policy

Among the principal transport difficulties experienced in past years, has been the maintenance in service of an adequate supply of locomotives and other rolling stock, to meet emergency conditions, particularly during holiday and seasonal traffic periods.

The Board has, therefore, decided on a comprehensive policy in regard to the withdrawal and replacement of obsolescent stock. This course is made more feasible since the establishment of a renewals fund and the commencement of reorganisation in the workshops. Under the new system, protracted delay to wagons in shops—with corresponding scarcity of vehicles available for traffic—will be avoided, since the course decided upon ensures that time will not be spent on repairs to vehicles which have reached the point where scrapping is the better course.

It is clear that the employment of locomotives and other rolling stock, which, through age, have reached a condition where any stress in excess of the ordinary might occasion a breakdown is not economically sound, and to prevent the possibility of this, the present policy of preparedness for withdrawal of obsolescent stock at the right stage has been adopted. The procedure to be followed is designed to assist improvement both in workshops turnover and in train performance, by relieving congestion in workshops repair sidings, minimising the likelihood of breakdowns, and reducing the operating cost.

The Board recognises that the fullest efficiency in this direction can only be attained if the staff back up these efforts both by exercising care and judgment in order to avoid damage through rough or careless shunting, and by promptly reporting every derailment or cause of damage which may arise in the course of the day's work.

A study of the incidence of rolling stock damage shows that a considerable amount of trouble has been experienced through “old,” i.e., unreported or undiscovered previous damage causing failures at critical times. This is a point in regard to which the train operating staff have it within their power to prove of great assistance to the management, for meticulous care in the examination of rolling stock and the immediate reporting of defects will not only help to prevent those delays inseparable from main line breakdowns, thus assisting in achieving that most desirable of transport conditions—prompt running, but it will also tend to provide a greater margin of safety for all those engaged in the handling of rolling stock.

The policy of rolling stock replacement now enunciated has a two-fold advantage. There is a point in all repair work beyond which patching becomes an expensive luxury, and this applies with particular force to railroading, where the parts of a train—like the links of a chain—are dependent for combined efficiency on the strength of the weakest portion, and where a failure at one point so frequently causes additional damage elsewhere.

Then it must be remembered that the locomotives and other rolling stock grow out of date as well as old, owing to changes produced by the more modern developments of transport requirements. In New Zealand, as elsewhere, the general demand in goods traffic is for longer trains to be hauled at higher speeds. To meet this requirement, the present types of locomotives are not always the most suitable. Then improvements in the design of locomotives is in the direction of producing increased hauling capacity from a given quantity of fuel, this consideration alone, under certain circumstances, justifying the abandonment of older types. Another feature is the increased durability necessary to withstand the constantly increasing strains and stresses of faster and heavier haulage.

A reduction in the cost of repairs due to rough handling, will put the Department in a better financial position for the supply of more modern vehicles and power units. It is particularly desired to further modernise the car stock, for it is recognised that a maximum degree of safety and comfort should be provided in passenger-carrying vehicles of all classes. Safety is being considered by the use of steel reinforcement in new ears under construction and old cars being remodelled. Comfort bordering on luxury, is one of the features of the passenger-carrying problem which has been greatly developed, under competitive conditions, by railways in other countries. It is one of the most tangible evidences of that “service” which must be rendered nowadays to gain public patronage. Overseas developments in this direction are being watched, and the best standards are being followed in the construction and equipment of our own cars with a view to increasing the satisfaction of travellers in the accommodation provided on our lines. Here again, the staff may help, for good car-cleaning work and considerate attention to the requirements of passengers en route will add to the pleasure derived from transit in well designed and comfortably equipped vehicles.

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