NEW ZEALAND RALWAY STEAM 1




In 1937 when I was half way through serving my apprenticeship the NZ railways commenced advertising for additional staff in all departments including the locomotive branch. This occurred at a low point in my work morale so I filed an application under my work address, posted it off and forgot it. Several weeks later on a Friday afternoon I was jolted back to reality by the works manager homing in on me waving a sheet of paper and demanding to know my state of dissatisfaction with my job. The piece of paper was my advice from New Zealand Railways notifying me of my appointment to the Taihape locomotive depot. I was to report at my earliest to the locomotive foreman’s office at Palmerston North to confirm the appointment. I hurried the 300 metres over to the railway office and found the foreman expecting me. He confirmed that I was the person about whom my employer had just phoned requesting that the railways not take me on. He asked me if I wanted to proceed with the appointment, I affirmed that I did and he advised me to appear for work at Taihape. I returned to the works, gave my notice, which was ill received and in due course took myself off to my new job.

In the locomotive branch one started under the title of cleaner. Progress up the ladder was to acting fireman, fireman, acting driver, second grade driver and first grade driver. From the top of this scale other posts were filled, namely road foreman, assistant locomotive foreman and finally locomotive foreman of one of the locomotive depots throughout the country.

I was given overalls, an engine-man's cap and handbooks on signals and signalling, operating rules and regulations and a working timetable for the whole country. Issued with a clothes locker in the crew room and a tools and materials locker in the engine shed. The year 1937 marked the beginning of a general trading and work upturn and jobs were becoming easier to come by, but applicants for jobs in engine depots in towns like Taihape were slow to come forward and the depot was relatively under staffed. Locomotive cleaning had long been abandoned and the resulting dirt and grease encrusted engines were the norm. Steam cleaning was done on the running gear when maintenance fitters worked on those areas. The cabs were kept clean by the operating crews. My first lessons were in personal safety. Do not have metal studs or plates on boot soles. Do not step across inspection pits nor step on rails when crossing tracks. In engine sheds and yards the rails are always slippery. Do not step onto moving locomotives or wagons without first securing a good handhold. I assisted the cleaner in charge of locomotives in steam with lighting up and steam raising, clearing char from smoke boxes, and ash and clinker from the ash-pans of incoming engines and replacing broken fire-grate bars. Was also commandeered by the maintenance fitters to hold this, hold that and be general gofor.

There was no formal training instruction of any kind, one studied one's books, looked, listened and asked questions. At the end of the first month I was put through an oral test on knowledge of loco boilers and their care while in steam in the depot. I was immediately promoted to boiler charge hand on rotating eight-hour shifts. The usual expired time before assignment to this duty was three months but the place was short handed and management assumed responsibility. I was on shift on New Years eve 1937-38 and the off-going boiler attendant clued me up on fitting wire hooks on brake blocks to hang them on the engine whistle cords to produce the mandatory midnight cacophony. Having prepared for the event, I became fully occupied with servicing incoming locomotives off the extra holiday express trains and the duties associated with stabling locomotives. Came 12.05am 1st January and not a squeak from a whistle. I didn't feel inclined to set up my own celebration five minutes into 1938, thus, the year quietly simmered in. The Taihape Chronicle had a piece to say about it and for a few days I maintained a low profile around the town.