NEWSLETTER – JULY 2001

SPECIAL MEETING: A Special General Meeting of The Club has been called for late afternoon on 7th July 2001. A separate notice has been sent out to all full financial members. The Business of The Meeting is to consider and, hopefully, approve a loan for the purchase of the section of our railway we presently lease from Solid Energy. This section of land runs from our bottom terminus (Rotowaro Terminus) to `Downer's Crossing' entrance - about 0.25 km above Pukemiro Junction Station: the total length of our railway to Downer's Crossing is 1.5 km. The land to be purchased includes all land at Pukemiro Junction, some occupied by our buildings, storage areas, pine trees etc.!

It is important to remember that we have never had this opportunity before and is a chance too good to be missed. Your vote is crucial.

The Meeting will take place after the locomotives have been put away following the confirmed Railway Enthusiasts charter trip.(To follow with a Roast and Social night put on by The Club- and no, you DON'T need to bring a plate).

MEMBERS: We hope those Members whose health is not the best, and those hit with various bugs (which happen around this time of the year), are on the much improved list. Our Best Wishes go to you all. We also hear Mary was `speechless' after the last open day, and caused some concern. YES!! This is the year of the Volunteer - so we need each of you in the `zenith' of well- being to continue `volunteering' for US!

We have also been informed of the passing away of a long-time member - N.W. (Chip) Stevens. For our longer-serving members, Chip bought a huge group of Youth Orchestra personnel for an excursion many, many years ago (quite a crowd for those days). Recently, Chip had informed us of his affliction but continued on as a Member. Also, to Members who have recently had a family bereavement, Our condolences are referred to you all - extended families and associates included.

MINES CAR: Ian has been down for a couple more visits and the frame work overhaul is completed on one end. He has also fitted the new platform/veranda decking and steps. The side- chains and buffer are in place and the car is pulled out of the shed for easier access when work is being done on it

The overhaul of one side is progressing well with about half of one side now repaired and fitted with the new tongue & groove timber. The PD crew continue with this when available and have scrapped many layers of accumulated paint from old parts from the overhauled end. Unfortunately they have found a lot of rotten timber at the end of the veranda roof which will need replacing. It is all curved timber and will have to be cut out to shape with a hand-saw.

Perhaps fortunately for us our PD chippie has just got another term on PD**!!! The PD crew usually use `man-power' to get the car out and then back in the shed after working on it!

We haven't received any extra calls offering to help with this overhaul.

CLUB ACTIVITY SUPPORT: We have recently received $2 500.00 to carry out repairs to The Shanty from "The Perry Foundation" in Hamilton. The main purpose of this grant is to completely rebuild the porch. NO!! - it won't be spent on rubbish disposal systems!! Special thanks to Trustees of THE PERRY FOUNDATION for this support - it will be the first time we have asked for outside assistance for the good of our members! and we must also thank GENESIS POWER LTD for their continued support for photocopying Club Newsletters. Genesis Power have now also generously supplied us with new fire extinguishers and - overalls for our mechanical club members are arriving soon.

STOP PRESS: We have also received generous financial support for our CB Programmed maintenance project. This will include retubing, the supply of new fire-bars - and the 10001 other expenses that arise from these schedules. A grant of $10 000.00 was received from THE CHISHOLM WHITNEY FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST which ensures the maintenance work will proceed on schedule next year. In the meantime, prices are being actively sought for materials now!

On behalf of all our Membership, sincere thanks to these groups who continue to support our Club.

HEISLER RESTORATION: This is still only at the `discussion' stage due mainly that we have had no-one come forward to be committed as `Project Manager'. Because of the programme and costings involved SOMEONE has to oversee this. Plenty of volunteers - no chiefs!! No Chief, no funding applications; No Funding Applications - NO FUNDING!! We all dream of having it operational again by its century year 2004.

SHANTY: A lot of members using this for weekend (or longer) stays, leave the place in a bit of a mess. Jan has lost count of the times she cleans rotten vegies, meat etc. out of the fridge or the back room.

We also find household rubbish just left in the coal- buckets or in plastic rubbish bags after visits. It is not other members `jobs' to clean up your rubbish and old food. Can you help us out a little?

TRAINING DAY: This was well attended but could -and should - have been better. Various sections of our safety scheme were gone through and any questions answered. A practice evacuation was carried out which entails further `modifications' to our safety scheme.

FIREWOOD: Thanks to Colin Webber for cutting up some more lighting up wood. (We are now in need of some more being cut up ........... oops!)

SIGN AT BOTTOM OF DRIVEWAY: Thanks to Bruce and Richard for erecting this and to Paula for organising it. We are hopeful that a sponsor will come to light. It is certainly a much tidier sign. - albeit an expensive type.

PINE TREES: The lower section of our pine plantation will be logged by the time you receive this newsletter. Some of the trees are getting very close to the Huntly/Taumarunui and Stratford main transmission lines that cut across our railway. The trees will be logged by a contractor for Trnaspower. It is hoped the logs will be stacked in the cutting and eventually loaded onto some of our flat top wagons to be cut up into sleepers and sawn timber at a later date.

To enable this work to be carried out - the railway line below the Junction was closed after some charters of 11th June - and hopefully reopened in time our July open day.!!

To ensure our line is, hopefully, undamaged, a member of The Club must be at The Junction the whole time the contractor is carrying out the logging. Thanks to Colin Ewing for doing this for us.

Some of the trees to be logged were planted in the very early days of The Club's time at The Junction.

CHARTER TRIPS: Monday 11th June saw 3 kindies in the morning and a primary school in the afternoon. We have another booked (tentatively) for July 7th prior to lunch-time, an enquiry for September and four different schools or kindies wanting charters in the "next week or so!!" the `next week or so' ones couldn't be run because of the closure of the line for logging.

CAR-VAN: Wingnut has spent quite a few hours chasing a seat- back for our car-van that was missing when we purchased the carriage many years ago. So far he has not had any luck - perhaps this method could be used as an alternative?

TRACKWORK: It is estimated that 2 1/2% of a railway's sleepers should be replaced each year to keep up ahead of rotten or broken ones. At 2200 approximate sleepers per mile - it means our passengers run over about 3000 sleepers from one end of our passenger railway to the other. This gives approx. 70 sleepers per year just to keep up, without major upgrading - like the line above the sandfill! If we don't do the 70 one year, you then should plan for 140 the next - and so on. Rather expensive when you cost it all out - let alone find the labour to do the work.

However, I am very pleased to report that our PD crews have spent a lot of time on re-sleepering since our last Newsletter and approximately 125 sleepers have been put in the following areas:-

SANDFILL: Extra cant was added to the curve on this area - by our PD crew using jack hammers - supervised by Andrew. A YB of ballast and several trolleys of spare sand have also been dumped in this area - More work is needed here yet, but the line is looking much better. 50 metres of extra ballast has just been purchased for this trackwork extension.

40 odd new sleepers have been put in the as yet unballasted area immediately above the sandfill with a few more marked for replacement.

400 half-round sleepers have also been unloaded and stock piled in this area.. Diesel `402' and the track wagon carefully ventured to the end of the re-sleepered line recently (almost 1 km ABOVE The Junction... progress indeed).

PUKEMIRO JUNCTION YARD: The area between the shanty and the loco shed has received a lot of attention. The point and both lines to the shed all have new sleepers - FOUR days work. This area has been largely untouched during our time at The Junction (and from the look of some of the sleepers, - or parts taken out -RATHER OVERDUE!)

MAIN LINE: A day has also been spent replacing sleepers between Hangapipi Road crossing and the curves just below our pine trees. Some of these were picked up by Wingnut in March during his track inspection. Several over-guage joints on a curve were also tidied up while in the area.

As you can see, there is ALWAYS HEAPS OF TRACKWORK to be done before members ask - "..are you n-e-a-r-l-y at Glen Afton yet!!?"

AUDITORS: Jonesy and Rodney visited us on 6th May open day for the Annual Audit Inspections. Both took pages of notes - (but we haven't had their reports just yet). As a result of the Ministerial enquiry into Tranzrails safety - it is possible the way future audits (and auditors) work may be changed.

PUKEMIRO YARD: PD crews have been flat out tidying up drains in the yard. They have finished cutting all scrub etc. on the hill above the yard where the picnic area is being developed and where the water-tanks are.

The clearing of scrub and honeysuckle that has spent years (and years) growing over, around and under our `valuable collection' in rotten row continues. The PD crew are now onto the back row, which is largely spare carriage bogies.

They have also given the cutting above Downers Crossing a good tidy-up getting rid of heaps of old ponga fronds etc. They have cleaned up a culvert under the track at the top of this cutting.

Some of them also got rather wet unblocking the top-end of a culvert under the yard near our firewood heaps.

GANTRY CRANE: Richard has spent a lot of time needle-gunning the framework and welding in additional bracing.

OPEN DAYS: The May and June open days were extremely good - passenger wise, and a healthy banking followed both days. Some of our publicity may have resulted from The Club being featured on `the Lotto Promotion" of the lotto draw on the night prior to May's open day. People have reported to Paula that they have seen the follow-up T.V. snippets also.

Some of our regular members haven't been available at times, but a few of our newer members have been turning up - WELCOME to our way of operating a railway. Thanks also to the junior Swabey boys who appear to be `volunteering' for numerous jobs - WELL DONE Mark and Matthew. (And don't forget the new face in the kitchen - Maureen). Good to also see Don being trained up on the operations side - now, where are these other newer members with their hands up???

This period of the year is our main `income' period, as far as open days go.

Thanks to all who help in any capacity during open days. One of the main problems seems to be people turning up as part of the roster - just BEFORE the first train leaves; then vanishing as soon as the last train has RETURNED. There is a lot of preparation work, then the tidying up that must go on before OR after an open day and as always "many hands make light work"! (Perhaps that's why the lights are at times - just glimmers). We appreciate that a majority of you travel many, m-a-n-y miles to join us for the day and hopefully and an extra 1/4 hour with us each end of the day would help tremendously.

The remaining open days are:
August 2nd
September 2nd (Father's Day)
October 7th

(no operations over Labour Weekend (unless prior charter booked)

WORKING BEES: These have been very poorly attended at weekends BUT we still hear "hasn't so and so been done yet" - OR "what's holding you up"!! !! even some of our regular members haven't been at The Junction for ages to do any work. Therefore - The Committee are trying to change this by having a set job for these days - SO WATCH THIS SPACE!! The jobs will be promoted in advance - does this sound a better idea!!? As always, your Committee is open to suggestions. Please fill attached work notice and listing for working bees.

Stop press: from The June Committee Meeting- it has been decided that the FIRST organised working bee will be FOR THE NEW FORMATION (SANDFILL) WORK ONLY will be on Sunday 29th July

Some work may be started by fit/keen members on the Saturday but fill in enclosed work-notice so we can gauge interest in this ORGANISED activity. A BBQ lunch may be supplied, even helpers with this would be appreciated.

NATIONAL FEDERATION RAIL SOCIETIES CONFERENCE: This year it was in Picton, and attended by myself and Jan as Delegates and Wingnut and Teresa as Observers.

There was a discussion on fires started by trains, costs, the powers of the Rural Fire Officer, and of what can be done to try and lessen the fire risk.

This led onto fire insurance. The cost of fires can be HORRENDOUS - the Boxing Day fires in Marlborough cost nearly $1 million in suppression costs alone (stones wouldn't even rattle in the bottom of our cup with those costings).

Several in the area have been started - or suspected to have been started by Tranzrail - and the Rural Fire Service have sent them a bill!!

The Rural Fire Officer has the authority to stop a possible source of fires - and in the case of Marlborough - has done so.

Land Transport gave a talk on their view of our type of railway as far as complying with our legal requirements go. Generally speaking, they are happy, but changes could be in the wind as a result of the Ministerial enquiry into Tranzrail's safety record.

Another talk was about Steam Loco Driver Training - how things are progressing and other railway unit standards presently being developed.

Barry Brickell from Driving Creek Railway was another interesting (and entertaining) speaker and gave us an insight into his many and various dealings to keep his operations up and running. (We enjoyed the bit about "wearing out six bank- managers" .

Another talk was about Internet publicity and its advantages. New committee member Colin Swaby is looking at this from the club's view. (More details tail-end of Newsletter).

We visited the "Riverside Railway" at Blenheim. This is a 2 ft gauge railway that runs from Brayshaw Park (-and area rather like MOTAT) but certainly looking much tidier than when I last saw it.

(Teresa was impressed with their new work-pit, and could see our members lighting up if they had the same facilities - well done boys. We also note John Orchard was a visitor to our Line a couple of years ago - maybe he was sussing US out for ideas!!)

This is the biggest conference for some years with over 60 Delegates and observers present from 38 railways.

(make a cuppa first, then read on, its almost too funny to be true!!)

......GETTING THERE by Jan and myself was a bit of a "mission". Teresa and Ian had gone on a few days ahead. I had worked the whole day -Thursday; - then Jan and I were booked on `The Northerner' from Hamilton overnight to Wellington - departure at 2250 (10.50 PM). As we arrived at the station, we commented about the TWO buses outside and the large number of people inside the station `slurping' tea or coffee AND chomping on sandwiches or biscuits. When we presented our tickets and were asked if we had to catch the ferry. YES - "rear bus please"!! When questioned we were told the northbound day express - `Overlander' - had derailed near Marton. We then went to put our bags on the bus seats, and had to c-l-a-m-b-e-r over a mechanic!!! - who was playing with the compressed air system. Other travellers told us the air to the front suspension was faulty and the bus had been very rough nearly all the way from Auckland about 2330 - we were then told the bus wasn't going anywhere and a replacement bus would soon arrive. The first bus left as it had to follow the rail route to pick-up or drop-off passengers. The replacement bus arrived - the only one available - everyone got on board - well almost everyone! The bus was smaller than the broken one - six adults, one child AND the Train Manager were left over!! YEP! Jan and Colin were amongst those `left over' , so a quick ring around revealed that no mini bus was available as no driver had enough driving hours left!!! This meant a taxi van was organised and we were to go to National Park and change onto a bus - not sure which one!! We all duly crammed into the taxi van: - Somewhere near Hamilton airport we stopped for a listen to the engine. It seemed to be making a s-t-r-a-n-g-e noise at about 100 km per hour. The driver said - "Sorry, but if we go on and breakdown my radio or cell phone might not get out because of the hills". So it was back to Hamilton and she arranged ANOTHER taxi van - the one that turned up was a paraplegic taxi van with bench seats down each side and behind the driver!! The new driver said "It's not too comfortable but its all we've got if you're not happy we may be able to arrange something else but that's unlikely" # # # # !!!! Time was ticking on as it does and we all had a ferry to catch at 0930; - by now - that same morning!! The driver went back to his house for blankets, pillows, a mattress - and his partner who had to share the driving. We then all FINALLY (final finally) set off at 2 AM for Wellington - with the taxi meter running. By this time the train manager said he should be dropped off at Te Kuiti: This did happen so that he could catch a `bus back' (and Jan and Colin thanked him for all his trouble!!!) . His cellphone account would be VERY LARGE just for the last few hours as he spent most of his time on it!! jan and I "snuggled" up in our blankets as the van rattled its way south; the weather got colder, and colder and c-o-l-d-e-r. After stopping at Waiouru for diesel -it was so frosty there- that the flip-flop lid on the rubbish bin wouldn't flip over!! -bbbrrrrrrr. etting off again, munching on a few biscuits and slurping Freshup - (courtesy of Tranzrail) the trip went through Levin about 0700 and struck some of the early Wellington bound traffic on their motor-way. Largely bumper to bumper but at least moving at a reasonable speed (i.e. moving). We, the weary travellers arrived at Wellington Railway Station at 0810 to collect our suitcases. If we had been later arriving, the taxi drivers had already looked into our bags being taken to the ferry ready for us to collect them there. As we (the weary travellers) pulled into the RAILWAY STATION, we noticed some of the passengers from the Wellington- direct bus we had talked to in Hamilton. Those travellers had only just arrived about half-hour before `the taxi'. (The fare would make a hole in anyone's pocketful of notes - NEVER MIND the change from a thousand dollars - there wouldn't be any!!) TWO WEARY TRAVELLERS eventually arrived in Picton and `surprisingly' slept well that night!!

The Topics discussed / Guest Speakers were numerous and well worth attending. (A bit of wheeling and dealing trade-offs were noted happening during the weekend).

WEBSITE: We all know the Club's "interest" is with The Steam Age; The Club `finally' caught up with the 20th century and connected to a land phone-line in 1999. THIS century thanks to Colin Swabey and help from Troy - The Club has joined The Computer Age and NOW HAS ITS OWN WEBSITE. Check this out on http://www.bushtramwayclub.com - Congratulations too, for a critique report of 9.666 out of 10 (and Colin has never compiled a Website before). With the documentation on equipment to do, he feels he has just BEGUN.

One of our ex-members visited The Junction recently and told me about the old hauler boiler than had recently been discovered on part of Gammaus tramway at Mamaku. From talks with others, he thought it may be an ex-Takapuna tram boiler with a winch mounted on a frame. (At the May open day I think it was - one of our members gave me this following newspaper cutting about the find).

`OLD GLORY' `Heritage Railway -April 2001 John Titlow's report': this was taken from article written after the Overseas Steam Railtour group visited New Zealand last year. (Extract from 6 pages of items and photographs).

".....There are more than 30 preserved lines and museums of 1068mm gauge and it was clearly impossible to see them all in 18 days, on top of which there are an additional 20 or so miniature and narrow gauge railways ranging from 2ft downwards to 3 1.2 ins.

The variety of these lines was a complete surprise and the tour became a voyage of discovery. NZ has a population of under four million and around 10% of the railways motive power in varying states has been preserved - and incredibly high figure of which the Kiwis should be very proud......

The Bush Tramway, alias the Pukemiro Line, is located about four miles west of Huntly where it runs over two miles of the former colliery railway from Rotowaro to Glen Afton. It's not just Guard Dog (see `Platform, Heritage Railway issue 23) that makes the Bush Tramway one of the more unusual preserved railways, but its locomotives.

The venue specialises in preserving the many varied locomotives from the bush lines throughout the country and none come weirder than the two-truck Cb built by Price of NZ. This machine has two cylinders mounted vertically inside the cab which drive a central prop shaft viz a bevel gear box: it has two speeds - dead slow and stop! The principle is similar to Shays. When building up to speed everything above the springs bounces up and down until it reaches speed then it stops. I had never seen anything like it. The Cb was in steam for our visit as was the ex-NZR F class 0-6-0ST.

For its unique quality this railway is well worth a visit, but due to the fire risk in this tightly-wooded area, the operation of steam locomotives is only possible from spring to autumn (our summer)."

By SIMON EARLE An old bush steam engine has been found after languishing untouched in the Mamaku forest for decades. Retired hunting and fishing guide Rex Forrester was told of the engine by avid pig hunter Terry Nga- whika and the news led to a mission of rediscovery. The pair were accompanied by film maker Kerry Fowler and Rotorua historian Don Stafford on a 4-wheel drive excursion deep into the forest. "We went on some forestry roads that followed the original lines that took Terry a while to find the spot because it was almost completely overgrown" Mr Fowler said. On cutting away the undergrowth no wheels or undercarriage could be found. "It was certainly of the size and vintage of the locos used, but as there was no sign of wheels we suspect it may have been used for stationary log hauling". The discovery of the loco was made during work on a RECT- funded video documentary about the 20th century history of Ngongotaha. There was special interest in the find because for many years the National Timber Company used bush locos to haul native tunber from Kaharoa. A bush loco regularly took supplies up the line to the bush camps and was even used as an ambulance. Resident Barbara Simms descrived in an interview how the line used to run within feet of their bach on the Ngongotaha lakefront. One of the original engines, a Price class, is still in existence and was recently bought by a new railway museum being established at Te Aroha. It has been refurbished by A and G Price of Thames - the company which built it and numerous other small locomotive around the 1929's era. Apart from the Ngongotaha programme Mr Fowler's Vid Pro Quo company is working on programmes on local aviation, education and local body politics.

The project includes up to eight hour interviews for each programme.Friends of the Museumare screening the last series of Hingsight over three Sundays starting on May 20.