1959-1960 — Page 11

37. The cost of maintenance of the diesel electric locomotives rose from $0.193 to $0.344 per km. The increase was due to the increasing age of the locomotives. Since the diesel locomotives were put in service in 1955, none of them had a wheel changed until this year when the wheels of locomotive No. 51 were changed. The changing of wheels is an expensive item and is one of the factors causing the increase in the maintenance cost.

38. Carriages and Wagons. In addition to routine maintenance, the following items were the more important work done on carriages and wagons:

(a) During the year, the programme for conversion of wooden bodied carriages to steel was continued. A total of six wooden bodied carriages Nos. 209, 300, 308, 315, 319 and 320 were rebuilt. The conversion from wooden to steel bodies is for both passenger safety and economies in maintenance.

(b) Carriage No. 201 was given a major overhaul. The internal panellings of this carriage and carriage No. 100 were relined with a laminated plastic surface.

(c) Major repairs were done to low-side wagons Nos. 45202 and 45206 including repainting.

(d) The following wagons were given a general inspection, minor repair and repainting :

40101

45100

45101

45102

45104

45105

45106

45107

45109

45412

45516

45103 45108 45202 & 45206

39. Work Done for Other Government Departments. A great amount of work was done for other departments of Government. The most important items were the manufacture of 3 hot water cylinders, 8 traffic pagodas, 24 loader plates for refuse collectors and 54 sets of traffic bollards.

40. Statistics. (a) The average consumption of diesel fuel for the year under review was 2.94 kgs. per engine km. as against 2.86 kgs. per engine km. for the previous year. The increase in consumption was due to the increased loads on trains and the increasing age of the diesel electric locomotives.

(b) Coal consumption was 11.76 kgs. per train km. and furnace oil consumption was 9.08 kgs. per train km. Since the mileage operated by the steam locomotives was comparatively small, these figures cannot be used as indices for the operating efficiency of the steam locomotives.

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