TANGARAKAU STEAM 3
My Dad was a shift engineer in the powerhouse at Tangarakau. The function of this installation was to supply 400-volt direct current power for the electric locomotives operating on the 30” (762mm) gauge temporary railway serving the needs of tunnel and permanent way construction on the section extending from Tangarakau towards Ohura. Also generated was direct current at 230 volts for the lighting and hot point requirements of about 200 dwellings and business premises. A large steam engine driven air compressor delivered air to a 6½ mile (10.5km) pipeline supplying the rock drilling machines in preparation for placing explosives used in blasting out material in tunnels and cuttings.
The power house steam plant installation consisted of a Bellis and Morcom high speed enclosed engine direct coupled to its 400 volt direct current generator. Complimenting this was a vertical compound open crank engine built by Murray of England belted to its 400-volt direct current generator. These two sets provided the electric power for the 30” gauge electric locomotives. The lighting plant consisted of a Tangye single cylinder horizontal engine belted to its 230-volt generator. The large air compressor built by Ingersoll-Rand of USA was a horizontal cross compound at the steam end with a two-stage air compressor at the opposite end. The crankshaft and flywheel were at the centre of the machine. Supplying steam to these engines were two Babcock water-tube boilers sharing common brickwork, but could be and were on occasions worked independently. There was also an eighty horsepower under-fired multi-tubular horizontal boiler in its own setting. Boiler feed-water was supplied by two Worthington duplex steam driven pumps. The exhausts from all engines were to atmosphere. That from the Ingersoll-Rand, Murray and Tangye discharged into a pit with condensate drainage into a nearby creek. The Bellis and Morcom exhausted via a long overhead pipe passing about 10 feet (3 metres) high through the engine room wall to discharge over waste ground where it saturated about a fifth of an acre (0.1 hectare) of soil with cylinder oil.
Four 0-B-0 electric locomotives operated on the 30” (762mm) gauge system and collected their power via trolley poles from an overhead wire. Sidings were shunted by withdrawing the trolley poles and clipping to the overhead wire with the aid of a hand held wooden pole a lead uncoiled from a capstan on top of the locomotive. This was a dangerous looking operation in view of the fact that a man had been electrocuted by accidentally making contact with the power cable. Assisting on the narrow gauge rail was a 0-4-2 steam locomotive built by Kerr-Stuart of England. This engine bearing the PWD number 525 was a chunky looking machine weighing 8.65 tons (8.79 tonnes), had 24” (609mm) diameter driving wheels and the water was carried in a saddle tank embracing the upper half of the boiler. Its duties involved shunting the narrow gauge yard, thus eliminating the need to festoon the yard with overhead electric wires. There was much original bush surrounding Tangarakau and deer and wild pig hunting were popular pastimes. Occasionally hunting parties failed to return when expected. The powerhouse whistle would be given prolonged blasts every half-hour until the party showed up. I do not recall reports of anyone failing to home in.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
TANGARAKAU STEAM 2
About four and a half miles (7.2Kms) generally Northwest from Tahora was Tangarakau known locally as “The Flat” headquarters for the Public Works Department railway construction operations. For four years during the construction works between the two places the motor road that was roughly parallel with the surveyed route of rail was closed and the PWD service railway laid on its surface which being little more than a clay track featured many tight curves and short sharp grades. Thus, the construction of the permanent way involving a tremendous amount of earth works, bridging and tunnelling was enabled to proceed from both ends and intermediate points of access. The workings were served by temporary rail connections over which train loads of spoil were hauled in side-tipping trucks from cuttings and tunnel bores to form fillings and embankments. The motive power during this period consisted of two small 0-4-0-steam locomotives that performed marvellous feats of endurance and service. One, bearing the PWD number 531 was built by Andrew Barclay works of Scotland. It weighed 7½ tons (7.6 tonnes) had side mounted water tanks, 22” (559mm) diameter wheels and the coal fuel was carried in bunkers in the front corners of the driver’s cab. The other was Number 534 built by John Fowler works in England. It weighed 8 tons (8.1 tonnes) also with 22” (559mm) wheels. The water supply was carried in a well tank between the chassis frame plates and the fuel in two side bunkers ahead of the cab. These locomotives were stabled at Tangarakau. As well as their daily construction work duties they hauled from the government railhead at Tahora the supplies on NZR bogie wagons. Two wagons at a journey constituted a load that consisted of building materials, rails, sleepers, cement, bridge girders and concrete reinforcing steel. The typical four wheeled NZR wagons were due to their rigid frames not permitted passage over the temporary rail lines. There were two ex NZR passenger carriages for the transport of residents between Tangarakau and Tahora to connect with the Whangamomona and Stratford trains and to run patrons to and from the Saturday night picture screenings at Tangarakau. Either of the two small locomotives worked these two carriage trains over the temporary route the curves of which hugged the inside banks that left little clearance between the carriage sides and the exposed clay. Carriage lighting was by three or four kerosene hurricane lanterns that violently swung from their ceiling hooks. At speeds of 18 to 20mph (28 to 32kph) where grades were rushed the engine exhaust beats were of frantic staccato urgency. Line-side dwellings in the forms of huts, baches and boarded tents all with the ubiquitous corrugated iron fireplaces and chimneys nestled in small creek bordered clearings. Each was a stopping place when required. Someone boarded or alighted, gave or received a package or a newspaper. The progress of the trains was always acknowledged by a wave from a tent opening, a doorway or a parted curtain.
About four and a half miles (7.2Kms) generally Northwest from Tahora was Tangarakau known locally as “The Flat” headquarters for the Public Works Department railway construction operations. For four years during the construction works between the two places the motor road that was roughly parallel with the surveyed route of rail was closed and the PWD service railway laid on its surface which being little more than a clay track featured many tight curves and short sharp grades. Thus, the construction of the permanent way involving a tremendous amount of earth works, bridging and tunnelling was enabled to proceed from both ends and intermediate points of access. The workings were served by temporary rail connections over which train loads of spoil were hauled in side-tipping trucks from cuttings and tunnel bores to form fillings and embankments. The motive power during this period consisted of two small 0-4-0-steam locomotives that performed marvellous feats of endurance and service. One, bearing the PWD number 531 was built by Andrew Barclay works of Scotland. It weighed 7½ tons (7.6 tonnes) had side mounted water tanks, 22” (559mm) diameter wheels and the coal fuel was carried in bunkers in the front corners of the driver’s cab. The other was Number 534 built by John Fowler works in England. It weighed 8 tons (8.1 tonnes) also with 22” (559mm) wheels. The water supply was carried in a well tank between the chassis frame plates and the fuel in two side bunkers ahead of the cab. These locomotives were stabled at Tangarakau. As well as their daily construction work duties they hauled from the government railhead at Tahora the supplies on NZR bogie wagons. Two wagons at a journey constituted a load that consisted of building materials, rails, sleepers, cement, bridge girders and concrete reinforcing steel. The typical four wheeled NZR wagons were due to their rigid frames not permitted passage over the temporary rail lines. There were two ex NZR passenger carriages for the transport of residents between Tangarakau and Tahora to connect with the Whangamomona and Stratford trains and to run patrons to and from the Saturday night picture screenings at Tangarakau. Either of the two small locomotives worked these two carriage trains over the temporary route the curves of which hugged the inside banks that left little clearance between the carriage sides and the exposed clay. Carriage lighting was by three or four kerosene hurricane lanterns that violently swung from their ceiling hooks. At speeds of 18 to 20mph (28 to 32kph) where grades were rushed the engine exhaust beats were of frantic staccato urgency. Line-side dwellings in the forms of huts, baches and boarded tents all with the ubiquitous corrugated iron fireplaces and chimneys nestled in small creek bordered clearings. Each was a stopping place when required. Someone boarded or alighted, gave or received a package or a newspaper. The progress of the trains was always acknowledged by a wave from a tent opening, a doorway or a parted curtain.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
TANGARAKAU STEAM 1
This series of blogs records a unique steam engine episode. The situation and events of the period 1929 to 1931 here described were part of the daily life of a twelve year old boy who had the good fortune to be there. The sights, sounds and smells have never faded and there remains a strong compulsion to share them.
In my eleventh and twelfth years from the summer of 1929 to the summer of 1931 my family lived at Tahora and Tangarakau, two key points between Whangamomona and Ohura on the construction of the Stratford to Taumarunui railway. For the first six months in the region we lived in one of the four newly built railway owned houses near the Tahora railway station. For the remaining 18 months we resided at Tangarakau in a Public Works Department house alongside the tramway belonging to the Egmont Collieries. The new railway was designed to provide a direct rail link between New Plymouth, a sea-port near the western extremity of the NZ North Island and the central North Island main trunk railway thus opening up the province of Taranaki to agricultural development.
At the time encompassed by this story the section of railway from Stratford to Tahora was complete and operated by the railway department. A large amount of bush cover had been removed and the milling of native timber was still going on. There were some relatively low production dairy and sheep farms and a few small coalmines other than the Tangarakau mine were operated on a one truck a day scale. Roads were narrow and while intended to be gravel surfaced turned axle deep in mud in prolonged wet weather. Blockages from landslides and washouts were frequent. In this setting the railway’s train services that always consisted of mixed goods and passenger stock were vital to the survival and development of the district.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.00am a train from Whangamomona arrived at Tahora where the guard’s van and passenger carriages were reversed. Wagons of supplies and railway construction materials were put off and others of produce such as coal, timber, bales of wool and cans of cream marshalled into the train for departure to Stratford. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays the train services from Stratford arrived at Tahora at 7.00pm and following the usual shunting procedures travelled back to Whangamomona. I either as a loner or in company with other small boys intently observed these arrivals and yard workings and departures. Of course my main object of interest was the locomotive, an NZR class “Ww” tank engine which to my eyes bore the proportions of a real giant. Noted were its 4-6-4 wheel arrangement, black shine, red painted headstocks, front and rear cowcatchers, chimney, steam dome, sand domes, Westinghouse brake air compressor and carbide gas head-lamp.
Our family weekly grocery order used to arrive from Stratford on the Tuesday evening train. The securely nailed wooden case was collected from the guard’s van, which always bore a pungent and pleasant smell of produce, leather, and grocery stores and pine wood cases. Packed with our stores was always a gift glass bowl or a cup and saucer or a large bag of sweets.
This series of blogs records a unique steam engine episode. The situation and events of the period 1929 to 1931 here described were part of the daily life of a twelve year old boy who had the good fortune to be there. The sights, sounds and smells have never faded and there remains a strong compulsion to share them.
In my eleventh and twelfth years from the summer of 1929 to the summer of 1931 my family lived at Tahora and Tangarakau, two key points between Whangamomona and Ohura on the construction of the Stratford to Taumarunui railway. For the first six months in the region we lived in one of the four newly built railway owned houses near the Tahora railway station. For the remaining 18 months we resided at Tangarakau in a Public Works Department house alongside the tramway belonging to the Egmont Collieries. The new railway was designed to provide a direct rail link between New Plymouth, a sea-port near the western extremity of the NZ North Island and the central North Island main trunk railway thus opening up the province of Taranaki to agricultural development.
At the time encompassed by this story the section of railway from Stratford to Tahora was complete and operated by the railway department. A large amount of bush cover had been removed and the milling of native timber was still going on. There were some relatively low production dairy and sheep farms and a few small coalmines other than the Tangarakau mine were operated on a one truck a day scale. Roads were narrow and while intended to be gravel surfaced turned axle deep in mud in prolonged wet weather. Blockages from landslides and washouts were frequent. In this setting the railway’s train services that always consisted of mixed goods and passenger stock were vital to the survival and development of the district.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.00am a train from Whangamomona arrived at Tahora where the guard’s van and passenger carriages were reversed. Wagons of supplies and railway construction materials were put off and others of produce such as coal, timber, bales of wool and cans of cream marshalled into the train for departure to Stratford. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays the train services from Stratford arrived at Tahora at 7.00pm and following the usual shunting procedures travelled back to Whangamomona. I either as a loner or in company with other small boys intently observed these arrivals and yard workings and departures. Of course my main object of interest was the locomotive, an NZR class “Ww” tank engine which to my eyes bore the proportions of a real giant. Noted were its 4-6-4 wheel arrangement, black shine, red painted headstocks, front and rear cowcatchers, chimney, steam dome, sand domes, Westinghouse brake air compressor and carbide gas head-lamp.
Our family weekly grocery order used to arrive from Stratford on the Tuesday evening train. The securely nailed wooden case was collected from the guard’s van, which always bore a pungent and pleasant smell of produce, leather, and grocery stores and pine wood cases. Packed with our stores was always a gift glass bowl or a cup and saucer or a large bag of sweets.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
STEAM LOKIES AND STEAM NAVVIES
In 1928 at age ten I met my first little locomotives (lokies). Four steam navvies were engaged in carving away high ground in preparing the site that would take the railway station and marshalling yards from the centre to the outskirts of Palmerston North. These machines were built by well-known makers of the times namely "Thew" "Osgood" and "Marion". Depending upon the makers' preferences they travelled on rails or crawler tracks or wide steel wheels that rolled on massive timber pallets that the machines themselves picked up from behind and placed on the ground in front as they advanced. The vertical fire-tube boilers were mounted at the rear of the swiveling structures to counterbalance the jibs and scoop buckets. Each of these grunty machines had three duplex engines: one to drive the bucket hoisting winch, one to feed the bucket into the cut and one to rotate the bucket over the spoil trucks. The machinery was semi enclosed with side panels and curved iron roofs. When an excavator was being repositioned one of the engines was clutched to provide traction to the carrying wheels and on the machines on broad steel wheels one axle was steered by link and screw mechanism operated from the ground by hand-wheel.
Temporary ever extending rail tracks followed the excavation work and two small steam locomotives served the four navvies by removing the trucks of spoil and placing empties up to them. These two energetic puffers were typical of many owned by the New Zealand Public Works Department". One was a 7.5 ton 0-4-0 side tank "Barclay" and its mate was a 0-4-0 side tank machine of 8 tons built by "Fowler". The tracks over which they worked were always hastily laid and very kinky, but by virtue of their very short wheelbases the little engines kept to the rails. The loads were hauled to a marshalling yard of more substantial track where a larger locomotive hauled assembled trains out to formations on the line of railway that needed filling and leveling. This locomotive was a 24.5 ton 0-6-0 "Barclay" with side tanks the tops of which sloped off to the front for about half their lengths.
At the beginning of 1929 the Palmerston North deviation project was curtailed and construction staff and machinery were sent to Gowan Bridge on the extension of the Nelson-Glenhope railway where work was in progress building the link from Glenhope to Inangahua It was rugged country following the course of the Buller River. The scene of operations that concerned us as a family was located 2.4 km south of Gowan Bridge and 2 km north of the junction of the Buller and Owen rivers. The PWD married workers' camp was located 400m south of the present state highway bridge over Granity Creek near its junction with the Buller River.
Heavy earthworks were under way and one "Thew" steam navvy and one "Barclay" 0-4-0 side tank loco and several spoil trucks were on the job. The navvy excavated a cutting in the north bank of the Granity creek gully and the small loco hauled the spoil across a temporary bridge on the site now occupied by the present state highway bridge to earth fills on the terrace above the Buller River. These fills were 4 to 6 meters high and teams of specialists constructed timber trestles along the line of the formation. The loco with its side dumping trucks cautiously rolled out onto these trestles that creaked and groaned under their weights. When the fills were up to rail level the trestlework was extended. The timbers for these were cut from the local beech forest and the footings, piers, beams, cross ties and braces were skillfully hand-sawn, adzed, bored and bolted together. These operations were so close to our cottages that when the loco and dump trucks rolled out onto the trestles one could inspect the undersides from the kitchen windows. The Murchison earthquake occurred at this time (1929) and shortly after for political reasons the project was stopped. In the late 1950s the whole line was closed down and dismantled.
In 1928 at age ten I met my first little locomotives (lokies). Four steam navvies were engaged in carving away high ground in preparing the site that would take the railway station and marshalling yards from the centre to the outskirts of Palmerston North. These machines were built by well-known makers of the times namely "Thew" "Osgood" and "Marion". Depending upon the makers' preferences they travelled on rails or crawler tracks or wide steel wheels that rolled on massive timber pallets that the machines themselves picked up from behind and placed on the ground in front as they advanced. The vertical fire-tube boilers were mounted at the rear of the swiveling structures to counterbalance the jibs and scoop buckets. Each of these grunty machines had three duplex engines: one to drive the bucket hoisting winch, one to feed the bucket into the cut and one to rotate the bucket over the spoil trucks. The machinery was semi enclosed with side panels and curved iron roofs. When an excavator was being repositioned one of the engines was clutched to provide traction to the carrying wheels and on the machines on broad steel wheels one axle was steered by link and screw mechanism operated from the ground by hand-wheel.
Temporary ever extending rail tracks followed the excavation work and two small steam locomotives served the four navvies by removing the trucks of spoil and placing empties up to them. These two energetic puffers were typical of many owned by the New Zealand Public Works Department". One was a 7.5 ton 0-4-0 side tank "Barclay" and its mate was a 0-4-0 side tank machine of 8 tons built by "Fowler". The tracks over which they worked were always hastily laid and very kinky, but by virtue of their very short wheelbases the little engines kept to the rails. The loads were hauled to a marshalling yard of more substantial track where a larger locomotive hauled assembled trains out to formations on the line of railway that needed filling and leveling. This locomotive was a 24.5 ton 0-6-0 "Barclay" with side tanks the tops of which sloped off to the front for about half their lengths.
At the beginning of 1929 the Palmerston North deviation project was curtailed and construction staff and machinery were sent to Gowan Bridge on the extension of the Nelson-Glenhope railway where work was in progress building the link from Glenhope to Inangahua It was rugged country following the course of the Buller River. The scene of operations that concerned us as a family was located 2.4 km south of Gowan Bridge and 2 km north of the junction of the Buller and Owen rivers. The PWD married workers' camp was located 400m south of the present state highway bridge over Granity Creek near its junction with the Buller River.
Heavy earthworks were under way and one "Thew" steam navvy and one "Barclay" 0-4-0 side tank loco and several spoil trucks were on the job. The navvy excavated a cutting in the north bank of the Granity creek gully and the small loco hauled the spoil across a temporary bridge on the site now occupied by the present state highway bridge to earth fills on the terrace above the Buller River. These fills were 4 to 6 meters high and teams of specialists constructed timber trestles along the line of the formation. The loco with its side dumping trucks cautiously rolled out onto these trestles that creaked and groaned under their weights. When the fills were up to rail level the trestlework was extended. The timbers for these were cut from the local beech forest and the footings, piers, beams, cross ties and braces were skillfully hand-sawn, adzed, bored and bolted together. These operations were so close to our cottages that when the loco and dump trucks rolled out onto the trestles one could inspect the undersides from the kitchen windows. The Murchison earthquake occurred at this time (1929) and shortly after for political reasons the project was stopped. In the late 1950s the whole line was closed down and dismantled.
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