Q 3
Ballast.
All ballast required for the Main Line has been broken and bottom ballast is being laid where practicable. The depth of top ballast under the sleepers has been increased to six inches but this will not involve an increase of quantity but a redistribution of material. The quality of ballast is good and it has been broken at a moderate rate. The ballasting of the last eight miles necessitates the laying of a siding at Mile 14 to take up the ballast broken at a depôt along the abandoned alignment.
Stations and Buildings.
Yaumati and Fan Ling stations were completed but no work has been done on staff quarters anywhere. It is a pity that in Railway Construction such matters are usually left to the last because it is difficult to get contractors to undertake them when there is no work of any bulk to be done close at hand. Shatin, Taipo and Lofu remain to be built as well as the terminal station at Kowloon, which remained in abeyance pending a final decision regarding the site of the terminus. Station masters' and menials' quarters and gangmen's lines have to be provided throughout. No arrangements for signalling or interlocking yards have yet been made. The amount of work involved in all this is not large, and all should be completed before June.
Plant.
There has been no expenditure in 1909 on Construction Plant. During the year indents were sent home for two tank engines, six open bogie goods waggons, six covered bogie waggons, twenty-six covered four-wheeled waggons and ten open ditto and two goods brakevans four-wheeled. None of these have yet arrived in the Colony. The engines and bogie goods stock should have been out by the middle of January but advice of despatch is only just now to hand, and the opening of the line in May must therefore be delayed. A contract for the body work and erection of the passenger stock was placed with the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company. There is likely to be delay in carrying out this Contract due to the non-arrival of fittings before the end of March; and the underframes I fear will not be out before the middle of May, so that the contract time will have to be extended to the beginning of July.
Opening for Public Traffic.
Last year it was the intention to open for Public Traffic by using the Overland Route which runs parallel to the Railway at Hung Hom and to place the Railway Station in a position which though temporary would come into the scheme for final development. Since then ideas have undergone a change and a new proposal regarding the final location of the terminus has been submitted to the Secretary of State.
Until connection with Canton is established nothing much in station accommodation at Kowloon is required for the light local traffic which in the interests of the Railway it is advisable to work up. Pending the decision as to the location of the terminus therefore we may take it that for all practical purposes a flag station in
Q 3
Ballast.
All ballast required for the Main Line has been broken and bottom ballast is being laid where practicable. The depth of top ballast under the sleepers has been increased to six inches but this will not involve an increase of quantity but a redistribution of material. The quality of ballast is good and it has been broken at a moderate rate. The ballasting of the last eight miles necessitates the laying of a siding at Mile 14 to take up the ballast broken at a depôt along the abandoned alignment.
Stations and Buildings.
Yaumati and Fan Ling stations were completed but no work has been done on staff quarters anywhere. It is a pity that in Railway Construction such matters are usually left to the last because it is difficult to get contractors to undertake them when there is no work of any bulk to be done close at hand. Shatin, Taipo and Lofu remain to be built as well as the terminal station at Kowloon, which remain- ed in abeyance pending a final decision regarding the site of the terminus. Station masters' and menials' quarters and gangmen's lines have to be provided throughout. No arrangements for signall- ing or interlocking yards have yet been made. The amount of work involved in all this is not large, and all should be completed before June.
Plant.
There has been no expenditure in 1909 on Construction Plant. During the year indents were sent home for two tank engines, six open bogie goods waggons, six covered bogie waggons, twenty-six covered four-wheeled waggons and ten open ditto and two goods brakevans four-wheeled. None of these have yet arrived in the Colony. The engines and bogie goods stock should have been out by the middle of January but advice of despatch is only just now to hand, and the opening of the line in May must therefore be delayed. A contract for the body work and erection of the passenger stock was placed with the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company. There is likely to be delay in carrying out this Contract due to the non-arrival of fittings before the end of March; and the underframes I fear will not be out before the middle of May, so that the con- tract time will have to be extended to the beginning of July.
Opening for Public Traffic.
Last year it was the intention to open for Public Traffic by using the Overland Route which runs parallel to the Railway at Hung Hom and to place the Railway Station in a position which though tem- porary would come into the scheme for final development. Since then ideas have undergone a change and a new proposal regarding the final location of the terminus has been submitted to the Se- cretary of State.
Until connection with Canton is established nothing much in station accommodation at Kowloon is required for the light local traffic which in the interests of the Railway it is advisable to work up. Pending the decision as to the location of the terminus there- fore we may take it that for all practical purposes a flag station in
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