TANGARAKAU STEAM 5




The coalmine track was fairly rough and the engine used to roll to an alarming degree. One day a stirrup linking an axle-box spring to a frame bracket slipped off and allowed the engine frame to bear on the axle box. The driver stopped the train at the engine shed that was immediately opposite our home. He produced a wood block and a long crowbar and after showing me what had happened asked me to lift the stirrup and drop it over the end of the spring while he raised that corner of the engine with the aid of the bar. As the movement was not great and he had plenty of mechanical advantage with the lever the operation was easily accomplished to the benefit of the driver, the engine and my stature,

The mine worked from Monday to mid-day Saturday. We used the local coal in our homes and ordered it by the mine skip load at a cost of 30 shillings ($3.00). At mid-day Saturday the truck would be located on the line opposite our house. We would barrow the coal home until the truck was lightened enough to derail it and push it home to finish the operation. We would then place the truck back on the rails with its mates ready for Monday morning start.

The mine itself went into the side of a hill with its shaft inclined slightly upwards from the entrance. Outside on a small flat area was sufficient marshalling yard for an empties road, a loads road and spare wagons and mine stores road. Twin rail tracks passed onto the mine right up to the coalface. An endless steel wire moving cable between the rails of both tracks enable loaded trucks coming out of the mine to haul the empty trucks up to the workface.

Electric power in the mine to drive the coal cutter, ventilating fans, drainage pumps and provide the lighting was produced by a very smart shining black Bellis and Morcom engine and dynamo set that was steamed from a large Babcock water-tube boiler. The powerhouse with its engine exhaust echoing in the bush-clad valley was built partly into the hillside adjacent to the mine entrance. About halfway between the mine and Tangarakau the tramway crossed the river via a single span wooden truss bridge making short radius 90 degree turns onto and off the bridge within the confines of the narrow gorge. A further mile (1.25-km) from Tangarakau was a locomotive watering point consisting of a wooden plank dam across a small stream issuing from a bush clad gully. A 3 inch (76mm) pipe and hose conveyed the water to the engine tank filler. No water stop valve was fitted as the dam continually overflowed. A short walk up the stream took us to a part of the creek bed that flowed through a channel of smooth papa clay that we lads used as a natural water slide. Ferns, Pongas, bush scents and the calls of tuis were the normal features of this scene.

On arrival at Tangarakau the coal train stopped at the entrance to a two road yard approaching the foot of a steeply inclined trestle ramp leading up to the wagon tipper of the screening plant that was built over part of the railway yards. The incline was fitted with an endless steel wire haulage rope between the rails of both tracks, one direction to haul the loaded trucks two at a time up to the tipper and the return direction to lower the empties to the yard. The endless rope winch and the screen shaking mechanism were powered by a large cross compound steam engine supplied by a large horizontal flue boiler. The order of procedure with the coal train was to draw up to the entrance points to the yard. A coal attendant set the points to the left hand empties road, unhooked the engine that then drove over the points that were then be reset to the right hand road. A long wire rope strop was linked between the engine and the loaded train to haul it in clear of the points. This brought the engine onto the empty train that was then hooked on and returned to the mine.