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.