Not too sure where to start this time as so much has happened it takes a bit of keeping up with! OPEN DAYS: July Open Day was VERY WELL PATRONISED and a healthy day's takings was banked. The large crowd really enjoyed themselves in the sun. We ran out of a lot of things in the shop including sausages. 11ANY THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED, YOU WERE CERTAINLY NEEDED.
CHARTER TRIPS:
We are still getting enquiries and even have some for NEXT YEAR! Andrew suddenly found out that if he agrees to run a charter - he has to arrange all the crew and be out of bed early enough to light-up as well. We are even having to arrange some days with two kindy trips in the morning and another group after lunch. Most charters are run by the usual team.
SPECIAL MEETING: A Special General Meeting was called for 5th July 1997 to decide, on the preferred site for Rotowaro Station: This meeting was very well attended and a good discussion on the 'fors' and 'againsts' for both sites was held. The Meeting voted in favour of shifting the station to Pukemiro Junction: Andrew (in a weak moment or perhaps he wasn't listening) got nominated as 'Project Manager' for the job. After the Meeting - a very welcome lunch was provided by the ladies. Most members probably went home thinking that the station would be probably shifted this summer. WRONG!!! Next day two of Solid Energy's staff arrived and really spoilt the early part of our hectic Open Day. They told us that the station "had to be shifted by the end of AUGUST! - and that in early October, stripping would start where the railway yard is". At this point, 1 think Andrew wished he hadn't taken on the job of Project Manager 1111 An emergency Committee Meeting was held after the Open Day to discuss and decided what must be done. There were TWO major stumbling blocks to shifting the station to the Junction: 1. The access road wasn't wide enough and most corners were too tight 2. One of our main power supplies was onto the Old Station building. We had recently received a grant to upgrade the access road and a contractor had been employed to do the job. He had programmed the job for the 'end-of-July' but arrived about mid-July. Bob and Colin Ewing spent the best part of three days with the contractor who also had to hire two trucks for the varying lengths of time to cart the clay away. The result is a much improved access road - a job that has been simmering on the back burner for quite a few years but as always lacking the necessary folding stuff. At the time of writing this, the new part of the road still needs metalling. (Up-date, it is now completed, and the report from charter bus drivers that it is like a MOTORWAY now!)
The SECOND MAJOR JOB was to purchase, dig a trench and lay new cable from the hall to the loco-shelter to allow the power supply to the station to be disconnected. lan purchased the cable 'at a very good price' and hired a trench digger for the trench. The day he hired the trench digger, THE RAIN JUST GOT HEAVIER AND HEAVIER and he thought he was digging a new storm water drain!. With Bob Wiseman's assistance the cable was laid and connected up at both ends. During this time anything removable from the OLD STATION BUILDING was removed and stored for 'future use'. (Una even shifted her garden surround bricks!)/ When all was ready and Andrew in attendance with his fire-engine - the old station was burnt! SO the photo in the last newsletter of the F coming into the station can't be repeated! This station was put up as a 'temporary building' more years ago than 1 care to remember, using the old lamp house from the Glen Afton mine and floor sections from Glen Afton railway station.
Bob Wiseman has made a temporary power connection to the new shop. DURING THIS TIME, ANDREW SUDDENLY FOUND OUT THE AMOUNT OF RINGING UP, RUNNING AROUND, BEING HELD UP AND THE PAPERWORK necessary to do THE JOB! He also learnt to READ CAREFULLY ALL PAPERWORK given to him.
As it stands at the end of July - the required site plan has been drawn up. The Permit application to remove, re-site the station can now go to the local Council. We have contracted a removal company to shift the station onto temporary blocks at the Junction, then come back in early December and shift our present shop to the new Rotowaro Terminus, then permanently re-site the station at the Junction. The Committee wishes to thank Andrew and ALL INVOLVED so far on the project. A lot of extra time has been put in at the Junction doing the work required.
And where was Colin and Jan Jenner while all this was taking place RELAXING IN AUSTRALIA!!!!!
It is with regret, I have to inform members of the death of Dave Hildreth. He was probably not known to newer members but he was our first Treasurer - a position he held until the Club moved out of Auckland. He often came to the Junction in the early days and would mostly give a hand at painting. 1 can remember going away with him, Bob and John Sloan in the 1960's getting photos of trains. We usually seemed to end up at a bar somewhere - often for a considerable time!
This following photo is of the Junction and its surrounds. It shows the 'powder siding' coming off the main line and in behind the station: The houses above the sidings are the railway houses. The doctor's surgery can be seen behind the station - roughly where our toilet block is today. The roof of the hall can also be seen. The track under the BB is probably being re-sleepered or perhaps second-hand 701b rail was being put in.
SPONSORS DAY:
This 'special' afternoon followed the Special Meeting and was a chance for The Club to thank the companies and people that have sponsored Club activities. The special train set out and went over the new track onto the sandfill be de-railed on its return where the new track joined the old section. At this point we had also started a gorse fire (or two)! The pilot loco (402) was still on the track so was uncoupled and returned to the Junction to pick up our fire fighting gear and crew. During this time Loco 401 arid the track-wagon were loaded up with jacks and blocks to get stuck into re-railing the train: The fires were put out before they spread and the train jacked back on the line. (Some of our visitors asked if we had done all this for their benefit!) The re-railing took about one-and-a-half HOURS and, after a couple of new sleepes were put in, the train returned to the Junction. All our visitors had been returned to the Junction earlier and entertained by the CB, Loco 402 and afternoon tea. They were also taken/or returned to Rotowaro End by Andrews FIRE ENGINE or the 402 loco. Passengers were very pleased with the progress of The Club. The Manager of the power station several times made the comment that he was impressed with the way we sorted out the fire and de-railment without panic and with the right gear. THANKS TO ALL WHO ASSISTED in any form on this day - even our Guard (Bob Wiseman) helping with the re-railment. AND YES! - we did report the derailment to Land Transport. The day was finished off with a BBQ tea and some of Bob Mann's movies of the 1960's - mainly of Railway Enthusiasts trips. Its amazing the changes in 35 years when you look at films like these
LOCOMOTIVES:
Diesel loco 402 recently broke a spring-hanger. A new one was made up by Richard and the loco put in the new workshop for this to be changed. Alan and Colin Ewing did the job but found a broken top leaf of the spring. Luckily we got two spare springs when be obtained the locos, so a spare was fitted, together with the new spring hanger. The broken spring will be repaired soon.
CB 117:
Richard continues his work on this. He has made and fitted new buffer mountings to take the older style long round shark buffers. He has bored the new pinions to fit onto the drive shaft. We have obtained a price to get four new crownwheels cast, so as soon as the bank balance will stand it, will get these cast. FURTHER TO THIS, THE COMMITTEE HAS RECOMMENDED WE OPEN A RESTORATION COMPLETION FUND SO REMAINING WORK ON THE CB CAN BE COMPLETED without having 'fanding hold-ups'. The current expenditure is $1400 plus for crown-wheels and the desire to have new tyres!!!!! Any fimds will be greatly received and these will be tax-deductible.
F 185:
Mike continues his work on the spark arrestor. He has recently got some of the internal parts made by a firm in Hamilton. Our hopes of getting the cast-iron base welded to the internal pipe failed as our welder advised us he couldn't guarantee the welding of old cast-iron to steel. We are presently getting the base cast in steel and then there will be no problems with the welding.
CHRISTMAS TIME IS FAST APPROACHING and we have 1998 calendars for sales.Prices of these RES = $10.00 to Club Members and LOCO ENGINEER CALENDARS at $12.00 each. There will also be NZR & L S ones coming very soon. We will post them if need be. Don't forget we have souvenirs available i.e,"185" and "F" train badges for $6.50.
CARRIAGES:
lan and myself recently spent most of a day jacking up the 'Mine's Car', removing and checking all the bearings. All were gouged. A couple needed touching up with a file while one needed completely replacing. Luckily we have a few spares. Half of the axleboxes were repacked as the old wool was rather "rotten" (Andrew's socks again!)? Bob continues his work on the car-van and has fitted one of the new curved ends. The other side has been cut out and the rotten pieces removed. Bryan Tribble ( a new member) is sanding down the woodwork inside and intends doing the vamishing.
FIREWOOD:
Just when we had the old heap all cut up - lan Jenner arrived with a large truck load of old pallets. These were unloaded and stacked by the P D Gang, then lan set about cutting them up and stacking the pieces in the tanks. There is still a large heap to cut up. This donation of light-up wood is always very welcome.
TRACKWORK:
Chris Mann and a 'mate' organised a group of Scouts to come down and do some trackwork. W arranged for a rail near the shed to be replaced and all new sleepers put in the trackset. Chris and three of the Scout Leaders turned up and got stuck in. The rail and sleepers were replaced but most sleepers still need spiking. THANKS CHRIS - perhaps the Scouts didn't like your offer of sleeping in a carriage and generally having to rough it for a weekend.
P D GANG: These have been back a couple more days. They have got half the workshop floor cleaned out and the boxing completed. It now needs the plastic and netting and then the concrete can be mixed. They spent half a day cleaning up all growth and dead punga fronds in the cutting near Downer's Crossing. They also cleaned up and burned some old timber that needed getting rid of for the access road improvements. The Gang have also spent most of a day re-sleepering some of the older sections of track near the sandfill.
OPEN DAYS:
Our next ones are
SUNDAY 7th September (Father's Day)
SUNDAY 4th October
SATURDAY AFTERNOON 25th October (LABOUR WEEKEND)
SUNDAY 26th October
SUNDAY 2nd November
OIL STORE:
Richard has given this a good 'huk-out'. He has made shelves to stand the plastic containers on, fitted taps or pourers and drip tins: Please help keep this store tidy!!!!
MOTAT Tramway Section - will be holding their 30th anniversary from 12-14
December 1997. If you are interested contact them at
30th Anniversary Committee
Western Springs Tramway
MOTAT
P 0 Box 44 114
Point Chevalier
AUCKLAND 1030
Registrations due by 31/10/97
PLEASE FILL OUT THE ATTACHED WORK NOTICE AND RETURN IT. We have not been getting many returned lately and this makes organising the crews for open days very difficult.
SOCIAL AT THE JUNCTION:
The 'ladies' of the Club have decided it would be nice to have a social get-together the night before our September Open Day, so all are invited BRING A MEAL TO SHARE and hopefully someone has been roped into providing entertainment ..ERIC - FILMS???
WORKING BEES:
The next ones are: SEPTEMBER 27 and 28th OCTOBER Labour Weekend NOVEMBER 22 and 23rd As you will see from this newsletter, there is HEAPS TO DO and the workload is increasing all the time. We could certainly do with many more hands.
GENERAL:
Jan is trying to organise the annual get-together and dinner for the Saturday night of Labour Weekend. She is hoping to have it at the Huntly Workingman's Club (next to 3 Guys in William Street, Huntly). This is on the eastern side of the railway line and is quite handy to the main requirements of Huntly township these days - the fire-station, the police-station and the court-houses! She must know by mid-October the number that intend going to this do. Phone Jan on (07 82 84 850) or write to Club Address as an indication. Andrew has offered to transport members from the Junction to the venue IN HIS FRIE-ENGINE!
Teresa recently gave our jigger shed another coat of paint. 1 know she really didn't intend to do so, but found a split in the paint pail!!
The last month has been one of "intense activity" at the Junction and to those doing the paper-work. Andrew has found out the time that can be taken up just arranging things over the phone and often getting shoved from person-to-person! He has also round the need to read correspondence etc. V E R Y C A R E F U L LY and thoroughly. Several members have commented to me about the excellent job he is doing about the station shift. KEEP IT UP ANDREW!
RADIOS:
At the June Open Day our speaker system packed a sad. One of Alan manning hobbies is radios, so he is arranging, with one of our sponsors, for a new system. He was spotted on the roof of 401 recently putting up a permanent aerial for its radio. These certainly make communications on our open days easier.
SAFETY SCHEME:
Our Auditors Reports were sent to Land Transport early in July. Land Transport want more from our auditors and 1 am arranging with them to come back for further inspections. They will then need to make further reports. At present no-one is sure exactly what is required but a guide to the audit process, what is required and how we are to work xvithin this system is to be, produced soon Better late than never 1
YOU'RE LOOKING VERY INTELLIGENT Bob
SHOP:
This needs to be used by the P1) Gang as their 'smoko-hut' area until some other area can be made available - possibly in twelve months time. The single door on the platform side of the shop is padlocked with what was the padlock on the old station's outside door. Anything of value must NOT BE LEFT IN THE SHOP, but is to be locked away in the kitchen area. Any damage to the shop must be reported to me so 1 can take it up with the P13 Super. Part of the conditions we agreed to before the PD gangs will wok for us' is that we must supply toilets and somewhere for them to boil-up and prepare their 'P D burgers'. Like it or not, this railway can't survive without the P D Gangs.
HUTS BY TOILET BLOCK: As part of the clean-up around the station, these huts have been shifted to our new car park area. Their eventual home is the area beside Eric's Hut. One is Bob's, the other will be the Club Office. The area that these huts occupied by the toilet block, houses the septic tank. NO VEHICLE IS TO BE DRIVEN IN THIS AREA - you may get a very unpleasant surprise!
WATERWAGON:
The work on our new water-wagon was partly completed a long time ago and then delayed by 'more urgent jobs'. Wingnut got back onto this a few weeks ago and the job is almost complete. We now have 1200 gallons of water on the wagon for fire-fighting. The major jobs left are to stop a 'couple of leaks' and make a cover for the new pump motor. The old pump motor has been overhauled as a 'spare'.
AIR COMPRESSOR:
Mike got stuck into the motor for this and has given it a good tidy up. He found all sorts of grit and grease where grit and grease is not supposed to be. It now starts much easier. It was used a lot for trackwork in years past.
Recently, while in Aus, I was talking to the station agent at Taree -(350 km, north of Sydney) - about the good condition of most stations I had seen. He replied that $900,000.00 had very recently been spent doing up the station but railway policy was to close all stations outside the metropolitan areas in the very near future. He expected it to be well vandalised within a few months. This policy of closing station had been carried out in Victoria with the expected results. I told him that NZ had done the same and all most passengers saw now were stations in an extremely wrecked or run-down condition - an eyesore to the travellers. A lot of the stations I have seen in Aus are built of brick on English styles rather than timber like NZ's.
BRITISH COAL WANTS DONATED STEAM TRAINS BACK!!!!!!
British Coal wants donated steam trains back.
British Coal, which donated its redundant pit steam trains to preservation groups up to 30 years ago, now wants them back, reports MARIE WOOLF from London.
The British Coal Corporation has written to Welsh and Scottish railway preservation societies saying that if they want to keep the engines, they will have to pay for them.
The BCC, which is responsible for winding up the coal industry's assets after privatisation, has given the steam railway lines only a few weeks to bid for the locomotives.
It plans to repossess those which have not been properly refurbished.
British Coal's demands have caused dismay among the enthusiasts who have spent up to $NZ71,000 restoring the engines.
'Ye thought the locos were given in perpetuity. It turns out it was a long-term loan," ways Chris Miller of the Gwili Railway Preservation Society, which runs a small line near Carmarthen.
"This is not much of a Christmas present. They have sprung it on us."
Such is the confusion over ownership of the British Coal engines that over the past three decades some have been dismantled for parts.
Officials were said to be furious to discover that Lord Camrose, an engine retired in 1987 to the Vale of Neath Railway Society, had been cut up for scrap.
Gwili steam railway, in South Wales, is scrambling to collect $NZI 190 to save Welsh Guardsman, a 1944 steam engine which arrived as a pile of rusty parts from Graigmerthyr colliery in the 1970s.
After a $NZ62,000 restoration, the train is now running again.
British Coal has already seized Pamela, a locomotive from Mountain Ash Colliery, which was awaiting restoration at Gwili.
It intends to sell the train, and others seized, to an agent in Staffordshire. He will dispose of them as spare parts or restore them for resale at their market price of up to $NZ60,000.
British Coal, privatised last year, refuses to say how much it has demanded from Societies for the engines, but says it is legally obliged to get the best price for its assets.
It is understood that railways with more than one engine will pay less than $1190 for the first, but up to $23,000 for others.
They will also have to pay thousands of dollars for asbestos removal. Steam engines were used to shunt coal from the pits from the 19th century until the 1980s.
Most British Coal locomotives "on loan" were built during World War 2 and retired in the 1960s and 1970s.
A spokesman for British Coal says the company wishes to ensure the trains are cared for in the future.
But its approach has been criticised by railway buffs who believe the trains should have been sold for a token amount or simply given away.
"We are very concerned about how this has been handled," says Peter Ovenstone, vicechairman of the Association of Railway Preservation Societies.
"These trains arrived as rusty wrecks. In some cases railways have spent several thousand dollars restoring them. BCCs accounts people would regard the locomotives as heritage assets, not as crown jewels to be stripped and sold at Sothebys." from OBSERVER received 8/1/96