Albury-Wodonga railway (precis)

Mr Frew, contractor for the Albury railway extensions, has laid the first line of rails all the way from the Albury station to the Murray and the second line is more than half- down, and will be at the river by the end of the week.

Only about 30 chains of ballasting has been done on the first line and on the second ballasting had not been commenced. The reason advanced for the slow rate of progress is that the work has to be done by trollies with hand-labour. The New South Wales engines cannot be used on account of the difference of gauge, and up to the present time no Victorian engine has crossed the temporary bridge. In a few more days this difficulty might be overcome as the bridge will then be completed. But the contractor, it appears, has been expressly forbidden to run an engine over the earthwork until the lower ballast has been laid. At the present rate it seems likely to be the end of May before all is finished.

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On the Victorian side of the river the contract is much nearer its end. The whole of the earthwork, some 123,000 cubic yards (about 94,040 cubic metres), is finished. The two lines of rails, one on the Victorian gauge, the other on that of New South Wales, are laid and ballasted from the Wodonga terminus to the river. All bridges are complete, even to the tarring of the woodwork, and all that remains to be done is a short length of decking on the temporary bridge. This will be done before the end of the week.

A curious feature of the business is the way in which the two governments are playing at cross purposes with each other as to the mode of connection. The New South Wales government is evidently determined to ignore the original arrangement, and to have the break of gauge only at Albury. The Victorian government just as persistently shuts its eyes to the fact, and lays down two miles of a line on the New South Wales gauge which must be useless.