end of 1950 720 workers were being employed on site. Construction village To house the workforce the Ministry of Works first built in 1947 a single men's camp and cookhouse on the west bank of the river. In 1950 work began on erecting 100 workers' cottages. The following year began on building a YMCA hall, shops, a hospital and nurses accommodation and a further 225 cottages. Eventually the village grew to 724 houses complete with a 90-bed hostel, a 600-child primary school, a cinema, a social hall, 17 shops, three churches, a fire brigade and ambulance building, four tennis courts, a swimming pool and a piped sewage scheme. In addition there were four single men's camps (two on the east and two on the west bank) containing a total of 1000 huts. These facilities cost a total of NZ£2,241,925. As the Otago Central Electric Power Board's network could not provide sufficient power to the village and the project, the government built a temporary power station containing two 1 MW and one 0.4 MW diesel generators, to supplement the supply. Transportation of materials and equipment In May 1946 the PWD and the New Zealand Railways Department held a meeting to determine what would be needed to transport materials to the proposed site of the power station. The main loads associated with the first four generating units were as follows: thirteen generator transformers, each 39.5 tons (40.1 tonnes), 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) long, 10 ft 4 in (3.15 m) high, 8 ft 2 in (2.49 m) wide; twenty-four stator sections; each about 19 tons (19.3 tonnes) gross, 14 ft 9 in (4.5 m) by 9 ft 1 in (2.77 m) by 6 ft (1.83 m); four shafts and thrust plates, each 33½ tons (34 tonnes) gross, 20 ft (6.1 m) long by 6 ft 6in (1.98 m) by 7 ft 10 in (2.39 m); four turbine runners, each 25 tons (25.4 tonnes), 12 ft 10 in (3.91 m) diameter, 6 ft 7 in ( 2 m) high; four generator bottom bearing brackets, each 20 tons (20.3 tonne) gross, 12 ft (3.66 m) by 12 ft by 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m). The most direct rail route was via the Roxburgh Branch line to its terminus at Roxburgh. However this line had an uncompensated 1 in 41 grades and five chain (100.6 metre) curves that would limit the loads to