The tragic death of these workers made a speed-up in conver- sion to diesel traction imperative with a view to withdrawing from service all but two or three of these war-time built Austerity 2-8-0 type steam locomotives, which are of poor design and have been a constant source of trouble.
An order for a further three diesel locomotives was accord- ingly placed with the Clyde Engineering Co., Australia, on 1st June, 1956.
43. Locomotives Nos. 26, 29 and 32 were given a major overhaul and locomotive No. 23 was given a medium repair. Boilers of locomotives No. 26 and No. 29 were completely over- hauled by Taikoo Dock & Engineering Company with tell-tale holes drilled in stays so that broken stays could be discovered. 44. The performance of the two diesel electric locomotives has been highly satisfactory. Statistics show that the availabi- lity of these locomotives was 95.95% for the year under review. This figure could have been much higher had the governor of the "Lady Maurine" not failed. When the governor of this locomotive failed, it was replaced by the new spare governor. However, this spare governor was not in working order due to the driving spindle being broken, probably in transit, necessita- ting the ordering of another one from Australia which took nearly 3 weeks to arrive. Altogether this locomotive was out of service for 23 days. But for this incident, the availability would have been 99.1%.
45. The heaviest repair done to the two diesel locomotives during the year was the turning of their wheels at the 100,000 mile period in the latter part of this financial year.
46. The total mileage performed by each of the two diesel electric locomotives up to the end of the financial year from the time they were put into service on 5th September, 1955 is 123,516 miles for the "Sir Alexander" and 132,777 miles for the "Lady Maurine". There were very few troubles experienced in their operation, and the workshop staff have become increas- ingly proficient in locating and correcting faults.
47. Two straight-through absorption type silencers were designed and installed on each of the diesel electric locomotives in order to reduce exhaust noises, which had caused some public comment. They have given satisfaction.
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