No Sleepers ‘Til Baldwin

 

Work starts this weekend on laying new sleepers on a section of the Western line between Morningside and Avondale.

KiwiRail and its contractors will be working between Newcastle Terrace and Baldwin Ave station from tomorrow preparing for the laying of new concrete sleepers.

The work breaks down into two stages:

Firstly, ‘skeletising’ the track to prepare for the installation of the new sleepers. This involves the removal of the clips and plates that hold the rail down. That work is done manually.

Then, the actual installation.

That involves a machine called a sleeper layer pulling a train which lays the sleepers on the tracks.

After the sleepers are laid, the track is manually bolted back on.

Work going on around Baldwin Ave this afternoon

The installation happens the following weekend when train services there are replaced by buses.
Other sleeper renewals have been going on in other parts of the Auckland rail network, as part of preparation for the new electric trains.

READY FOR CHANGE: Sad old Baldwin Ave station as it looked this afternoon

Baldwin Ave’s station upgrade starts on December 19.

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2 Comments

 
  1. Andrew says:

    Impressive machinery. I saw a video of one of things operating in Europe somewhere and wondered if there would ever be anything that advanced in NZ. Turns out there is!

 

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