'Swings and roundabouts' at Hillside auction

Auctioneer Kevin O'Connor, of Auckland, conducts an auction of engineering equipment in the Hillside Engineering Workshops fabrication shop yesterday.

More than 200 people attended the two-day auction, which was held in the former project shop and stores area on Tuesday and the machine and fabrication shops yesterday.

''It went really well. Some items went for more than I thought they would and other items didn't go for as much as I thought they would. It was swings and roundabouts,'' Alastair Beer Auctions owner Alastair Beer, of Tauranga, said.

It would be several weeks before the final result of the sale was known, Mr Beer said. The auction followed the closure of the workshops by KiwiRail last year.