27. Increases in fixed assets during the year included $143,585 for the construction of an additional loop line at Lo Wu, $284,270 for the length- ening of platforms and erection of new shelters at several stations, and $95,244 for the provision of additional equipment for the Railway Workshops.
28. The asset 'Land and Formation' stands in the Balance Sheet at a book value of $8,228,391 only, a figure which is considerably below the current market value of the land under private treaty grant for railway use. No charge for the use of land is borne by the Railway Accounts.
29. The Accounts and supporting data are published in Appendices I to V to this report.
MECHANICAL WORKSHOPS
30. All locomotives, rolling stock, electrical and mechanical equip- ment, machinery and plant were maintained to a good standard during the year.
31. Locomotives. Forty 5,000 mile inspections, twenty-seven 10,000 mile inspections, ten 30,000 mile inspections, four 60,000 mile inspections and one 120,000 mile inspection were performed on the nine diesel electric locomotives. Sixteen chrome-plated cylinder liners were fitted to locomotive No. 58 and their performance is being closely watched. The merits of chrome-plating used liners as against using step-sized pistons have recently been stressed by many Australian railway authori- ties. Apart from the savings achieved by retaining the standard-sized pistons, it is claimed that the life of the chrome-plated liner is at least twice that of the cast iron liner. If the experiment proves to be satisfactory, the use of chrome-plated liners will be adopted as standard practice in future. Locomotives Nos. 52 and 57 had their wheels turned. The harmonic balancer of locomotive No. 53 was rebuilt with new spring packs. Twenty- one traction motors were overhauled. Locomotive No. 54 had all the low tension wires renewed and was fitted with re-bored cylinder liners and oversized pistons.
32. The availability factor of the diesel electric locomotives was 90.47% compared with 86.11% in the previous year. Higher availability of locomotives was achieved in coping with a special requirement for one extra locomotive to stay at Lo Wu Station at all times for shunting duties.
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