NEW ZEALAND RAILWAY STEAM




I applied for transfer that was duly granted to Palmerston North where I was back on my home ground, old associates, proximity to the west coast beaches and it was more interesting working over the variety of rail routes. The centre served the main trunk line north and south, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa and Foxton lines. My duty roster placed me on goods, mixed goods and passenger and the Wairarapa mail trains and the secondary expresses that ran between Palmerston North and Napier and Palmerston North and Wellington.

It is only natural that incidents occur on such a highly mobile job as locomotive running. Cattle beasts get onto the track and escape if they are lucky. Not so lucky were about twenty sheep out of a large flock that was half way across a road crossing near Ormondville on the Hawke's Bay line. Rounding a blind curve with an express train sent sheep bowling in all directions. What a lot of spare ribs!

A horrendous fright was given to a track maintenance gang between Palmerston North and Ashhurst. We were running an extra train of empty fruit wagons back to Napier. Because these seasonal specials ran somewhat erratic timetables a track maintenance crew thought it reasonable to ride their motor jigger back to Palmerston North, but we met on a blind curve and just before the impact all four men leapt into the comparative safety of the track-side blackberry bushes. The jigger was only fit to rake up and put into a skip bin. The men were badly scratched but not bent. On another occasion we had a near miss from the stuff that nightmares are made of. This was again on the Napier line. We were to meet and pass a train at Ashhurst. The opposing train had already left Woodville before we had left Palmerston North so we were held. But the ex Napier did not arrive, it had plowed into a slip that had fallen and covered the north end of the first tunnel at the south end of the Manawatu gorge. Had timings been a few minutes different we would have met the slip from inside the tunnel. As it was, the other engine nosed up the toe of the slip and eleven wagons of goods toppled into the river. The tunnel now has an extended concrete portal.

A memorable event occurred soon after the outbreak of WW2. I was the fireman on a troop train for the Palmerston North/Wellington leg of the journey that had started from New Plymouth. On board was the Taranaki contingent en route to embark on one of the troop ships that conveyed our forces to the European theatre of war. While we attached our freshly serviced locomotive some thirsty troops took the opportunity to replenish their supplies of liquor from the row of obliging hotels adjacent to the railway station. We rolled smartly through Longburn, Linton, Tokomaru, Makerua, Shannon and Koputaroa. At Levin we were unexpectedly signalled to stop at the north end of the station. There was a police presence and backed up to the platform was an ambulance with attendant medical staff and stretcher at the ready. They converged on the carriage next to the engine to meet a bevy of soldiers half carrying and half propelling a vigorously protesting member of their company nursing a hand and arm swathed in blood saturated bandages. It turned out that immediately after passing through Makerua the train guard was made aware of something wrong when a party of soldiers invaded the guard's van and commandeered the entire kit from the first aid cabinet. We learned that the injured man was seen by the Makerua tablet porter as we sped past to extend his arm out of the open window and strike the tablet exchanger. The attendant assessed the mishap and communicated with train control that notified the Levin Station Master who passed the information on to the Levin Police who set up the emergency action. The soldier was taken to hospital and we resumed the journey to arrive at Wellington 2¼ hours after departing from Palmerston North. Three months later it was my turn as a volunteer to sail to the Middle East to serve as a member of the 16th Railway Operating Company in North Africa but that is a story later in the narrative.