NEW ZEALAND RAILWAY STEAM 6




New Zealand Railways employed about eleven hundred steam locomotives in all. Early ones were from British builders followed by an early mid period of American suppliers, mainly Baldwin, then a mixture of home and North British building. Haulage requirements were growing so fast that successive new acquisitions rapidly became inadequate in power and numbers. Growth of the railway system was sustained by the relatively under developed main trunk roads of the times that were unsuited to heavy motor truck traffic. The main trunk Auckland-Wellington railway was single line that started to become clogged with the growing frequency of relatively lightly loaded trains, thus it was thought that if the power of each engine was doubled, train weights could be doubled and traffic density halved accordingly. So with that thinking, the highly successful South African Garratts were examined and it was seen that without increasing the driving axle loadings all of the above could be achieved. South African traditions were not followed and a home spun design and order for three vaguely similar locomotives was placed with Beyer-Peacock and delivered in 1928. Three years later I viewed one of these machines abandoned in rotten row at Taumarunui locomotive depot. It had handsome lines but all that glitters is not gold.

In my time at Taihape I was to meet drivers who had driven and fired these locomotives on their stamping ground between there and Taumarunui. From the information gleaned the boilers were really good steamers as long as the mechanical stokers kept going. The coal feed worm frequently failed through the presence of stones and steel scraps in the coal causing drive breakages. The engines could travel quite fast providing the Gresley linked middle cylinder valve did not over-run and throw the engine into violent wheel-spin. The water tankage was insufficient and on 1/40 grades the water flowed from the higher to the lower tank. Time was consumed with frequent stops to refill. In their brief existence two firemen were often carried to take over from the sure to fail mechanical stokers. But that was not all, the crossing loops of the time were too short to accommodate the trains that could be hauled and the draw-gear of most of the existing wagons was too light to withstand the newly imposed forces.

These locomotives were of 4-6-2+2-6-4 wheel arrangement. The driving wheels were 57” diameter and the 6 cylinders (three to each power unit) were 16.5” bore x 24” stroke. The boiler pressure was 200 PSI, the fire grate area 58 square feet. The tractive effort was 51580 pounds and the engine weight was 146.8 tons. In the wake of this failed experiment there has been and still is ongoing speculation as to what if they had met expectations! The system might not have seen the “K” series of locomotives. Perhaps if the Garratt concept had made use of the chassis and running gear of the time tested “Ab” and “Wab” locomotives carrying a slightly smaller boiler with a 48 square feet grate aimed at a more conservative tractive effort of say 42000 pounds they may have become the dominant class.

In 1940 the so called civilized world went mad when the most technically advanced nations entered hate relationships and commenced hurling tons of iron and explosives at each-other and smashing up national infrastructures. This turn of events took me into a three year spell working steam and diesel locomotives on the military railway in the North African desert.

NEW ZEALAND RAILWAY STEAM 5




The ten “Aa” class Pacific type locomotives supplied by Baldwin in 1914 were classical American in every way. I never knew them in their original form but caught up with them towards the end of WW2 by which time they had been rebuilt with “Ab” boilers and cabs and redesigned tenders. They were also equipped with compressed air power reversing. They hauled freight mainly between Palmerston North and Taihape, were good steamers but not as freely as the “Abs”, and rough riders at speed over 35 MPH. An oddity was that the shafts of the fire shovels of both the originals and rebuilds were three inches longer than those belonging to all of the other NZR locomotive classes.

Palmerston North was home-base for a fleet of “Bb” class 4-8-0 tender engines that performed the yard shunting, ran the usually lightly loaded Foxton branch goods daily service and supplied exchange locomotives for Marton Junction and Danevirke. Originally built for main line freight work they were grossly under boilered or over cylindered with their small narrow fireboxes, but proved highly successful in the main shunting yards up to the end of steam.

There was nowhere on the NZR network that members of the 141 “Abs” did not run. They represented the definitive locomotive of the time. They handled all of the main passenger trains relatively efficiently and economically. Indeed, they were incredibly free steamers and of most uncomplicated configuration. Their weight distribution was a little short of ideal being light on the leading bogie and heavy on the rear end single axle truck. Through their lives two tons of cast iron weight was added to the front ends. They were prone to fracturing their main frames through the arches behind the cylinders. Indeed one that I was on with a provincial express clean broke on one side at speed a mile short of our crew change point. The thumping with each piston stroke was like that of a power hammer.

The “Wab” engines were the tank version of the ubiquitous “Abs”. They had the same boiler, cylinders, running gear and cab. The rear bogie was of the two axle trailing type to carry the added weight of the coal bunker. The side mounted water tanks provided useful weight over the driving wheels that enabled the boiler pressure to be raised to 200 PSI thus returning an additional 2366 pounds pull at the drawbar. Although there was higher demand on the boilers they steamed even more freely than the “Abs” from which they were derived. They rode well but forward vision was restricted by the height of the tanks and their projection of 3 inches outside the width of the cabs. In the latter days of steam several of them were converted to “Ab” class tender locomotives.

The new “Ka” engines coming on line were a quantum leap in quality of service with their massive roller bearing axle boxes and extremely free steaming boilers. They rode well and the running gear gave trouble free service between programmed overhauls. They bore a clumsy style of so called stream-line smoke-box and boiler-top casings that added nothing to the aesthetics and hampered the maintenance staff. They were also equipped with the French ACFI feed-water heating system with which I was familiar on the Taihape based “K” 919. About halfway through completion of the “Ka” order the fitting of the cowlings and ACFI system was discontinued and eventually removed from all engines of the class. Easily maintained exhaust steam injectors as on the original “Ks” were made standard equipment.

The 40 “J” class engines of my time followed by 51 closely related “Jas” and “Jbs” to make a total of 91 with their oil sealed Cannon roller bearing driving axle assemblies and Baker valve gear were probably the NZR’s finest steam locomotive package. The first 40 bore fairings along the tops of the boilers that hid the funnels and steam and sand domes. The smoke-boxes bore coned fronts with the headlamps in the centres. This paraphernalia was eventually removed and all members of the class were turned out in their naked glory.

NEW ZEALAND RAILWAY STEAM 4




The Palmerston North depot was home to a quota of locomotive classes “K”, “Ab”, “A”, “Aa” and “Bb”. There were Daily visits of “Wabs” and the occasional “X” from Taihape. In my second year through 1939 in Palmerston North the stable was joined by the new “Ka” and “J” class locomotives. Counting the Taihape “Wg” and the new “Kas” and “Js” I worked on ten classes during my relatively brief stay on the NZR. The following chart gives some vital statistics of those. In my time all except the “Wg” were superheated. The “As” and “Xs” were four cylinder compounds. Some of both classes were rebuilt as simple expansion after WW2 but I had moved to other fields.



Class Number built Years built Wheel arrange-ment Weight Tons Cylinders B & S

Inches Wheel

Dia.

Inches Grate

Area

Sq. ft. Boiler

Press

PSI Tractive

Effort

85% BP

Pounds

A 58 1906-1914 4-6-2 78.2 12 x 22

19 x 22 54 30 225 21250

X 18 2907-1915 4-8-2 94 13.5 x 22

22 x 22 45 37.1 230 29168

Wg 20 1910-1912 4-6-4T 50.5 14 x 22 45 16.9 200 16289

Aa 10 1914 4-6-2 88.7 18 x 24 49 33 180 24280

Bb 30 1915-1918 4-8-0 69 17 x 22 42.5 16.8 175 22253

Ab 141 1915-1925 4-6-2 84.7 17 x 26 54 33 180 21289

Wab 30 1917-1927 4-6-4T 71.5 17 x 26 54 33 200 23655

K 30 1932-1935 4-8-4 140 20 x 26 54 47.7 200 32740

Ka 35 1938-1950 4-8-4 145 20 x 26 54 47.7 200 32740

J 40 1939-1940 4-8-2 110 18 x 26 54 39 200 26520



I have mentioned some of the characteristics of the 1930s “K” and the earlier “X” class locomotives. In between these were various vintages well represented in numbers for a system the size of that operating in New Zealand. Still in service into the near final days of steam were 58 “A” class compound Pacifics built from 1906 through to 1914. Like their contemporary freight hauling “Xs” they were DeGlen compounds. Inside HP 12” X 22” cylinders drove the cranked front axle and outside LP 19” x 22” cylinders drove the second set of wheels. They had 4’- 6” diameter drivers and with the inside and outside cranks on each side arranged 180 degrees apart rode remarkably well at express speeds. As with the “X” class engines there were separate sets of Walscheart”s valve gear for the HP and LP cylinders adjusted by separate reversing levers. The drivers usually worked them with the HP lever notched up slightly closer than the LP lever. Some drivers even left the LP valves at full travel. Operation of the levers on the “As” was reasonably light but adjustments on the “Xs” required a man’s full strength. When topping a grade to avoid shoulder and back injury the drivers tripped the latch and let them go clunk to the front of the quadrant, then it was one foot braced against the quadrant to haul them up to resume steaming. They were hard work when used for yard shunting and train marshalling.

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.

NEW ZEALAND RAILWAY STEAM 2




At five months from start I was tested on signals and signalling and promoted to acting fireman on the station yard-shunting engine. Four months on the shunt engine took me to nine months service when I was put through the fireman's exam. This was a one day paper on signals, signalling, locomotive boilers and engine running gear and lubrication. Also, oral questions around a locomotive. I was allocated to duties as a main line fireman on goods and mixed passenger trains from Taihape south to Marton Junction and Taihape north to National Park with some trips as far as Raurimu and Oio.

In the beginning I found this an interesting learning curve. One learned the road, the up and down grades and not to be occupied with stoking while rounding curves to the fireman's side. One became attuned to the engine's demands for fuel and water, learned to see the condition of the fire through the brilliance of the furnace and developed night vision. One learned the locations of the signals, tunnels, and road crossings, turnout points at station sidings, tablet exchangers and the idiosyncrasies of the different engine drivers. An outstanding memory of a driver for whom I fired for some weeks was the late Charles Parker who was to go to his untimely death in the Tangiwai bridge disaster. He was a very alert and helpful engine-man. Something must have diverted his attention on that ill-fated night. Another bright star in my memory was Jas. Evans. He handled his engines with panache and liked to bowl them along reveling in their power. He was reputed to be at one with the phases of the moon and certainly displayed exuberance on bright moonlit nights.

Of the locomotives based upon the Taihape depot were four of the “K” class 4-8-4 tender engines that wheeled the Auckland-Wellington expresses and through freight trains over the Taumarunui-Palmerston North section. Three “Wab” class 4-6-4 tank engines worked mainly mixed goods and passenger trains between Ohakune and Palmerston North. Two “Ab” class Pacific types performed similar work. Five “X” class 4-8-2 tender engines worked goods between Ohakune and Marton Junction. One class “Wg” 4-6-4 tank engine shunted the Taihape station yard. Locomotives from Taumarunui in the north and Palmerston North in the south were turned and serviced for their return workings.

The actual work of firing any of these locomotives was not difficult or hard apart from the vibration and noise. The killer was the night work and irregular working hours. Most of the central north island consists of about ten or twelve mile sections of steep grades that test the locomotives but they are loaded accordingly and for every up-grade there is a down grade so power demand is not continuous. It is well known that no two engines perform identically but in general they responded in predictable ways. The “Ks” were the newest engines then having been built in the 1930s. They weighed 140 tons and had 47.7 square feet of grate area that was easily manageable. The boiler pressure was 200 PSI and the cylinders were 20” x 26”. The driving wheels were 4’-6” diameter. The tractive effort was 32,740 pounds. They ran smoothly enough when new or fresh after overhaul but soon developed wear in their driving axle-boxes, connecting rod big ends and coupling rod bearings so spent most of their working lives clanking monstrously. A person could be forgiven for thinking that they had square wheels. The preceding heavy haulers in the central North Island were the “X” class that were 4-8-2 De Glen compounds built between 1907 and 1915. The HP cylinders 13½” X 22” were inside the frames and drove the leading axle that was cranked. The outside LP 22” x 22” drove the second axle via the conventional crankpins. The driving wheels were 45” diameter and they were restricted to a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour. Anything over that the crew got a rough vertical ride that gave these engines the appellation “Buck Xs”. The rear section of the fire grate was flat immediately above the fourth drivers while the front half sloped steeply down between the third and fourth drivers. A line of site projected from the sloping section aligned with the top edge of the fire hole so the fireman had to be canny in judging the condition of the fire on that section and usually resorted to feeling it with the rake.

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.

ENGINEERING APPRENTICE DAYS 3




The day arrived for the roller to be steamed up and driven over a course of about three miles skirting the busy parts of the city to end up in the railway yards. Thus the foreman and I spent the morning raising steam, seeing that the feed-water injector worked properly and jiggling the machine out of its state of rest in the ground indentations into which the rolls had settled. After lunch all was ready. He to be the inexperienced driver and I to cycle ahead to be the traffic lookout at street intersections. All of the streets that we traversed had relatively narrow high-crowned tar-sealed ways with grass verges both sides. This latter feature proved a benefit in rescuing our charge from collision with the footpath edgings during the fearfully zigzag course that we inadvertently followed.

The engine throttle was a simple stop valve at the boiler. The driver’s seat was almost over the rear roll that was steered either by a hand wheel with its shaft across the machine or by a neat little three cylinder radial engine whose rotation was determined by a fore and aft hand lever beside the driver’s seat. Movement of the hand wheel or the lever forward or backward steered the machine to the right or left. The water tank was formed over the leading roll with a raised edge deck to carry the coke and coal. The boiler fire-door was at the side so that the machine had to be stopped and the driver dismounted to replenish the fire.

The engine was driven a few laps of the yard for familiarization then out onto a busy street at very slow speed for the short rumble to the main leg of the journey. The high crown on the road and the steering that demanded fore and aft lever movements and the lack of a centre indicator for the steering engine control caused frequent angle parking diversions into the grass verges. Thus there were plenty of opportunities to replenish the fire and boiler water. All was finally delivered to the railway loading bank and our duty was done.

In those times apprentices were required to attend technical classes associated with their trades three evenings a week. The subjects in my area were applied mathematics, technical drawing and engineering workshop practice all of which I enjoyed. The school was well set up with engineering, plumbing, woodwork and electrical workshops.

The years 1935-1937 were lean times in the engineering business and workshops of moderate size had shrunk to relatively small concerns. Businesses that operated foundry departments that dropped back to two or three staff lost that part of the business to their tradesmen going out on their own and setting up in opposition. The same thing also occurred with the then fledgling and promising light industrial refrigeration industry. Another growing business at that time was the reconditioning of car, truck and tractor motors. The established engineering firms saw this as an opportunity and equipped with generally low production machinery. Again highly motivated young employees gained financial backing from automotive parts wholesalers and taking advantage of more highly developed machinery coming onto the market set up shop and took over this work.

So it was in this atmosphere of not gaining employment in the engineering works of my first choice and seeing the premises used more or less as a dumping ground for the plant of its closing branches in other towns and the threat of closure of the current workshop that I considered looking for employment elsewhere.

ENGINEERING APPRENTICE DAYS 2




Time in the workshop was spent in learning machining components in lathes and gear and chain sprocket cutting in the milling machine. Also did my share of striking for the blacksmith at the forge and anvil. He was a master at heating and manipulating the work with tongs and form tools while I with mighty hammer obeyed his commands, "when I nod my head, you hit it".

A timber mill and box factory in the town powered its large steam engine with a pair of horizontal multitubular boilers fired by Dutch ovens burning wood slabs, sawdust and shavings. One of the boilers had reached its economic life. Some of the lower tubes were taken out and another apprentice and I were sent to chip scale from inside the bottom surface. This confirmed the state of the boiler and it was condemned. The factory staff dismantled and removed the boiler and loaded it onto an old horse drawn lorry adapted for towing by motor truck. The procession was headed for the city dump, but as it passed our works the manager just happened to meet it and pointed out advantages in terminating a relatively long journey by dumping the load in our works yard. The driver saw the logic and no sooner said than done! The late owners were a little miffed that their throw-away had suddenly come to represent some value. A few weeks later I was to learn to appreciate the economics to be gained from a bit of canny recycling.

Along with its two steam rollers the city council owned an internal combustion engined road roller. I think that it bore the name "Barford" but not sure. However it had the typical front roll and large rear rolls but on a smaller scale than its steam stable mates. The quite large horizontal single cylinder sniff and bang engine lay where one would see the boiler in a steamer. The speed was governed by a hit and miss device that broke the regular action of the mixture inlet valve, hence a mighty firing stroke followed by several revolutions of the massive flywheel then another bang. Everything that could work loose was indeed loose. The canopy structure and the engine cooling radiator convulsed with each power cycle of the engine. The front roller consisted of two castings whose surfaces had worn through thus creating holes. It became our job to reface them and this was done by rolling up two steel cylinders from metal cut from the above mentioned dumped boiler. The blacksmith with oxy-acetylene torch cut the plates from the boiler shell, rolled them to size and finely trimmed them for heat expansion and cooling shrinkage to measurements made with his time proven measuring wheel. The meeting edges were then electric welded ready for the final operation that took place out in the works yard. The roll halves were placed on their ends on steel packing strips and the new rings stacked end to end on top of each-other and packed up from the ground on fire bricks. Wood fires were stoked inside and around the outsides. When red hot the rings were lifted one at a time by workers with tongs and dropped over the rolls to rest on the packing strips to cool and shrink on for ever. A skilful job well done!

A job came up to recommission an Aveling tandem steam roller that had lain stored in a trucking company yard in the city. The works foreman and I worked about a week preparing it for steam-up and drive it to the railway yards for transport to new owners at Auckland. We opened up the vertical boiler for inspection and renewed hand hole door packings, water gauge glasses and test cock gland packings. The engine mounted beside the boiler was a compact unit with chain drive to the leading roll. The machine was guided by the rear steering roll. The valve operating mechanism on the engine was my first encounter with the Marshall linkage. I was so intrigued with its configuration and action that I reproduced it many years later in the power unit of a small two passenger steam car to be described in future postings.

ENGINEERING APPRENTICE DAYS 1




I commenced serving an apprenticeship in the engineering trade in 1935. The works repaired factory steam boilers, serviced the few of the remaining steam engines and repaired some local council road roller boilers. Gas and electric welding and turning and fitting were the main stays of the business. Dairy factory and freezing works machinery installation and maintenance were ongoing services.

My first introduction to steam action in the plant was to dismantle and smash up two in stock “Shand” single cylinder horizontal engines that had never turned a flywheel. Electricity reticulation had taken over and the scrap metal dealers collected.

Some months later the next meeting with steam was with one of the city council road rollers that had been the object of my schoolboy interest as it ploughed up old street gravel and tar bases in preparation for reforming and resurfacing. The execution of this process was about the ultimate in graunching. The steam roller, no light weight puffed and jerked mightily. A wondrous sight for a small boy! But as I was to learn the operation repeated over time found relatively weak points in the boiler structure, namely the firebox wrapper front corners which developed cracks where the side sheets formed into the throat plate. Thus, the machine was steamed into the blacksmith’s shop and the trouble spots exposed and the cracks chiselled out and electric welded. Some water-leg stays in the regions also had to be replaced. For this memorable piece of work I had to crouch inside the fire-box and hold a steel dolly against the stays that were being hammered and headed from the outside. I now wear hearing aids, I wonder if that was the start of the defect.

My home town had a wool processing, dying, spinning and knitting mill. In its wool dying section was a large steam driven centrifuge dryer. It was mounted on a short vertical shaft with a crank beneath that rotated in a horizontal plain. The single double acting cylinder with its crosshead and connecting rod and valve eccentric rod were normally covered by a checker plate floor. The slide valve and seating had worn, so it was our job to remove the steam chest cover, remove the valve for refacing and lap the port surface. I worked with the works foreman on this job which finally finished and assembled he cautiously opened up the steam supply and spun the bowl up to what we thought to be its operating speed. The dye-works foreman came on the scene to observe progress and spun the stop valve wide open whereon the whole thing tore into life with the giant bowl howling and the crankshaft vanishing into a blur. We took a quick look for an escape route, but that was the norm and all was well.

Being the new apprentice part of my regular job on Monday mornings was to oil the overhead main and counter-shaft bearings. There were wooden plank cat-walks with no hand rails above the shafts and bearings and because of the height above the floor and the whirling pulleys beneath me I would gingerly crawl from point to point much to the amusement of the old hands. But I became accustomed to the height and underfoot action to eventually sprint through the maze with the best of them.

Friday afternoons were sweep-up days and of course this was again my regular job. This involved tools of the trade, bristle broom, shovel and wheelbarrow. This latter is the point of this diversion away from steam engines. The only part of the barrow that was genuine barrow was the iron wheel. The rest was made from old ¾” inch pipe and the body consisted of a 44 gallon drum cut in half along its length and the resulting semi-cylinder mounted on the frame with much of its length ahead of the wheel. Thus, the wheel carried most of the load and the centre of gravity of the whole assembly was very high. Rare were the times when I made it to the out-door dump site without the outfit taking charge and doing a preview dump. Rather later in a works where I was employed they had created their wheelbarrow a little differently. In this mark 2 version a 44 gallon drum was cut about a third of its height around its circumference and secured on a frame well back from the wheel, in fact so far back that one felt that one was doing all of the work and personally carrying everything except the wheel.

TANGARAKAU STEAM 8




Many individual skills were brought into play on railway construction and coal mining projects and the associated communities. Men were identified for their judgement and expertise in rock drilling and placing explosives, tree felling, handling timber jacks, working with axes, adzes and hot metal forging. Rigging lifting tackle, locating coal seams and anticipating weakness in tunnel bores were other highly regarded skills. The village at Tangarakau maintained a resident policeman, a doctor, an Anglican curate, a small hospital and maternity home, a hair-dresser and tobacconist, two general stores, two dairies, a butcher’s shop, a post-office and a dance hall and picture theatre. One family from its premises conducted a fruit and vegetable shop, billiard saloon, household coal sales and delivery, general carrying and rubbish collection and disposal. In wet slushy conditions the means of transport was by horse and dray and when the roads were firm a model T Ford truck was used. The proprietor of this multi-functional business dispensed much goodwill and addressed every woman as “Mother”.

There was an excellent school headed by Mr Fairbrother. MA. (And don’t forget it). My most outstanding memories are my first lessons in French language and grammar, learning to play the flute and read music and exploring the riches to be found in reading. The school maintained an excellent library.

Some forty years later I journeyed through from Stratford to Taumarunui and stopped off in the area for a day. Gone was the abandoned orchard, the railway houses at Tahora now reduced to three, the one that we had lived in destroyed by fire. Our old school building moved to the opposite side of the road to serve as a contractor’s workshop. New classrooms and amenities had replaced the old one and its country toilets. The railway yards, station and goods shed with its close-by creek all there standing still in time. I followed the Tangarakau road to its junction with the Moki Saddle and Ohura road, past the clearing where the rail bending rollers had been, travelled the road that had once been the temporary rail bed, now widened with a good base of metal. I remembered the busy little 0-4-0 steamers puffing their urgent rhythms. Looked up at the well-established main line and the two tunnels and arrived at the Tangarakau railway yard, all quiet now except for the few daily trains rumbling through. The bush was cleared a little further back on the scarred hills. The dwellings, school, shops, hall, coal screening plant, engineering shops, loco sheds, construction railway yards all gone. I crossed the Raekohua stream bridge that carried the roadway to my old home, just an open field now. The main part of the old school building was now a farm store-shed with a more recent homestead close by. I crossed the timber truss bridge that lay alongside the railway bridge over the Tangarakau River and wondered over the site where the powerhouse had stood. The concrete floors of the coal bunkers, boiler and engine rooms still there as were the boiler and chimney foundations and the two concrete foundations on which the two Worthington boiler feed-water pumps had hissed and clicked. There too were the concrete beds and flywheel pits of the four engines that generated electricity and supplied compressed air. I saw that the area over which one of the engines discharged its exhaust was still stained with oil although nature was healing the scar. Sheep and fat cattle grazed over my old playground, I listened for the sounds of the past and was rewarded with a fitting sound of the present, a skylark trilling from aloft its song of life. On the way from Tangarakau to Ohura I drove over the Moki Saddle road, now a good metal surface that no longer climbs over the crest of the ridge but passes through a high arched tunnel. I stopped at the bottom of the saddle hill road where it enters the Tangarakau gorge and meets the river opposite the site where the coal mine workings had been. The backdrop of bush-clad hills was the same, but the vision of the entranceway to the mine, the powerhouse and the train marshalling yards all held in memory only. The bush had taken it back and the melodic calls of the resident tuis confirmed its tranquil isolation.

TANGARAKAU STEAM 7




By the time the coal mine had been working about a year it was decided to declare an official opening. A special excursion train of about twenty carriages was run from Stratford to Tahora; the locomotive being the usual “Ww”. At Tahora the engine and guard’s van were transferred to opposite ends of the train and the PWD Barclay number 514 was coupled on to lead the way for the journey to Tangarakau. This was a down-grade run and there was much conferring between the crews of the two engines before departure from Tahora. The arrangement was that the leading engine crew acted as pilots and gave hand and whistle signals back to the NZR engine crew who had control of the Westinghouse brakes. The journey accompanied by much hand signalling and whistles blowing was successfully completed. I did notice the smaller driving wheels of the PWD engine flashing around faster than was usual. What was a quiet lope for the bigger engine was a gallop for the smaller one.

At Tangarakau the day trippers inspected the coal screening plant and associated works, then those who had the fortitude boarded the coal trucks of a forty truck train for the four mile (6.5 km) journey to the mine workings. I too made this journey and noted some summer frocks and hats ruined by sparks from the hard-working little locomotive. After inspecting the first 15 chains (300 metres) of the mine that left its mark on summer footwear we travelled back to Tangarakau where those outward bound rejoined the NZR train which already having its engine at the business end departed for Stratford.

All of the PWD locos had their regular drivers thus throughout the weeks the two little 0-4-0s Numbers 531 and 534 took turns to work the passenger cars to Tahora to meet the morning and evening NZR trains and the Saturday night picture trains. They also worked special trains laid on to enable patrons to attend local sports functions. One Saturday a rugby match between Tahora and Tangarakau teams had been arranged to play at Tahora. The two carriage train headed by Fowler number 534 was set up to convey the Tangarakau team and supporters. There was no one on the train or indeed in the engine cab who was less than jubilant, this being aided and sustained by generous quantities of the good brown beverage of the day. With an excited squeal from the whistle the little loco frantically puffing bounded out of Tangarakau and just inside the first tunnel the leading wheels derailed causing the engine to slew across the track so that its buffers jammed against the sidewalls of the tunnel. The first carriage coming unhooked nudged into the side of the engine cab. Little damage was done and many willing hands well experienced in re-railing soon restored order and the journey continued in a more sedate manner.

The larger Barclay number 514 worked for several months on the ballast job and whilst it looked good to the casual observer it must have been feeling its age for it was dismantled at Tangarakau and the boiler railed out for repairs. A few weeks later it was returned all freshly coated with red-lead paint. The opportunity was also taken to fit new axle bearings and carry out other repairs. While it was out of service its duties were taken over by an ex NZR 0-6-0 “F” class locomotive.

While steam engines of all sorts were to be watched I did not take much notice of horses but there was one chaff burner that I enjoyed watching. He spent his days in company with a four-wheeled end tipping truck working in a cutting. He hauled a lot of spoil for a short length of fill for the approach to the north end of the Tangarakau River railway bridge. His beat was a well-worn track between the rails up a slight grade to the working face of the cutting. He wore a collar and harness but no reins. He would without guidance walk himself around and back up to the appropriate end of the truck to be hooked on. His signal to start was the clang of a shovel against the ironwork of the truck. At this he would start off and gain speed to a lumbering trot. Another clang of the shovel and he would ease up, the hook detached whereon he moved to the side of the track allowing the truck to trundle past to the end of the rails to dump its load. By the time the truck had emptied and the tipping body restored Dobbin would arrive turn himself around and back up to be hooked on and return for another load. His pay was a nosebag of chaff four or five times a day.

TANGARAKAU STEAM 6




One memorable day the loaded train arrived at the coal screen yard and the attendant was temporarily absent. Myself as usual not being far off and for better or for worse being on good terms with the engine driver he asked me to drive the engine while he did the points and strop duties. For me this was the ultimate wow factor. He actually performed the movement of taking up the slack of the strop then left me to restart the engine ever so gently and puff quietly up to the empties. So there it was this mighty 7-ton (7.1 tonne) hissing and vibrant locomotive. My pictures of those American 32 and 40 wheeled behemoths faded to nothing, this was it, the real thing. I gently eased the throttle a little bit open, there was a hiss, a tremble, movement, a lurch towards the diagonal pull. A puff resonated back through the boiler, another puff and another, no more throttle needed, just keep it moving, keep an eye on the driver back there and the closing gap to the row of empty trucks up front. The driver signalled that the loads were in, close the throttle, and swing over the hand-brake lever. Stopped now, a goal, the end of a journey, one of the great achievements, does attainment always feel like that!

At this time the permanent railway bridge to cross the Tangarakau River was being built. The bridge construction plant was set up on one bank. Part of the plant consisted of a pile driver with its rope winch and tower. An ex-steam engine that was piped into the compressed air pipeline from the powerhouse powered the winch that performed several construction operations from its fixed site. It hauled the pre-cast steel reinforced concrete piles into their positions in the riverbed, aligned them vertically and operated the pile driver that drove them to depth. When the casings for the cappings and piers were placed the winch then repeatedly hauled out the large tub of concrete mix, the tipping and pouring of which was a spectacular sight. After the piers were completed and the boxing removed the winch then assisted with placing the bridge girders.

The permanent section of railway between Tahora and Tangarakau was now ready for the ballast metal. This brought a new look and new sound to the locomotive scene in the form of a 21.5 ton (21.8 tonne) 0-6-0 Barclay with 32 inch (813mm) diameter wheels. This was PWD number 514 of very pleasing lines with nicely proportioned fore and aft overhang, roomy cab, elegantly curved saddle water tank and a neat rear coal bunker. It had a mellow toned whistle, steam powered brakes and a transverse throttle lever operable from either side of the cab. On a memorable occasion I had my first ride on a standard gauge locomotive on this engine. It had the power to haul the ballast trains and pull the spreader or plough van to evenly distribute the ballast metal. It also hauled the screened coal to the Tahora railway yard for onward movement by the NZR trains.

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.

TANGARAKAU STEAM 4




The various railway installations at Tangarakau in those construction days consisted of four parts. There was the PWD 3ft-6ins (1067mm)-gauge arrival and departure yard for materials brought in from Tahora. The permanent railway yard under construction, the 30 inch (762mm) gauge PWD service railway for formation works on towards Ohura and the 24 inch (609mm) gauge tramline serving the Egmont Collieries owned coal mine in the Tangarakau River gorge.

As the tunnels, bridges and earthworks and permanent rails linking Tahora and Tangarakau were completed all of the workforce and mobile machinery concentrated on the Ohura section. The several tunnels were bored from the ends to meet at their centres. The bores were pierced 10 ft square with narrow gauge rails and power cables to operate the electric locos engaged in hauling out the trucks of spoil. The bores were then opened out to finished size and shape and concrete lined. As the tunnels were finished a third rail was laid outside the narrow gauge to accommodate standard NZR wagons. For hauling them the narrow gauge steam loco was equipped with an offset standard NZR coupling. The electric locos being too light for that work were not thus fitted.

The power for residential lighting as supplied by the Tangye engine was brought on at 3.00 o’clock in the afternoons and ran until midnight. On Tuesdays it was brought on at 1.00pm to provide for the weekly household ironing. The engine was only just adequate to maintain the required power demand and one could by watching the rhythmic fluctuations of the lights in one’s own home count the engine crankshaft revolutions. This engine was near a small door in the engine room that gave access to a staff shower room. An extension of a valve spindle protruded through a gland in the outer end of the valve chest, presumably in a previous installation to have worked a boiler feed-water pump. However, this spindle aimed towards the door nakedly poked back and forth. One day someone got poked and a complaint was laid. So a flat metal bar was bent up, drilled and bolted to the steam chest allowing about one eighth of an inch (3mm) working clearance between the end of the extended rod and inside face of the nice new guard. This guard immediately became a useful handgrip for anyone mounting the doorstep and entering the building. It did not take long for the inevitable “splat” one finger instantly press-formed to 1/8” (3mm) thin. The other quick reaction was the brazing of a sleeve into the guard so that the valve stem could jab harmlessly inside it.

The fuel for the powerhouse was supplied from the local coalmine sited 4 miles (6.4km) up stream in the Tangarakau River gorge. The mine was close to the river on the opposite bank from the road where it descended from the Moki Saddle and converged with the river for a short distance. The mine tramline conveyed the coal from the mine down to the company screening plant situated at Tangarakau. The motive power was a delightful little 0-4-0 well tank steam locomotive built by Andrew Barclay of Scotland. It weighed 7 tons (7.1 tonnes) and had 22” (559mm) wheels. The trucks were typical ¾ ton (0.76 tonne) capacity four wheeled skips some with pressed steel and others with hardwood plank bodies. There were enough trucks for three 24-truck train sets plus a few spares. One rake of trucks would be filling at the mine, one rake emptying at the screening plant at Tangarakau and the third either full or empty in transit. The coal was of relatively poor quality, contained too much stone and shale thus producing a lot of clinker and ash. The PWD powerhouse boilers consumed 12 tons (12.2 tonnes) a day. All of the local steam machinery used it and boiler fire cleaning and ash-pan clearing were ongoing chores throughout the working days.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Steam on the roads and rails

STEAM ON THE ROADS AND RAILS

Through the 1920s there was much street construction and surfacing underway in my hometown. The city owned two steam rollers, an Aveling and a Fowler whose workings greatly affected my journeying to and from school. They broke up old surfaces, rolled new foundation courses and rolled the new tarmac. They replenished their water tanks from street horse drinking troughs.
Two steam lorries were frequent visitors to a nearby timber mill. These had under-mounted engines and vertical boilers up front and rumbled along on solid rubber tires accompanied by a clatter of gears.
The North Island main trunk and East Coast railway lines crossed the end of our street so I was an avid train watcher. Some of the old Wellington Manawatu Railway Company Baldwin locomotives that the government railways had inherited when they bought the private company out were still in use. Among them were the 4-6-0 high-wheeled "Ub" class with their see-through frames and high pitched brass adorned boilers. Other ex WMR engines vaguely remembered included representatives of the 2-8-0 class "O" and 2-6-2 class "N" variants. Some of these that emitted a muffled exhaust noise instead of the more staccato beat of the simples I learned were Vauclain compounds
The widely heralded "Ab" 4-6-2 Pacifics and much admired "A" class 4 cylinder DeGlenn compound Pacifics were widely distributed throughout the government railway network. As well as working the regular goods and mixed trains, the former worked the Wellington-Auckland expresses while the latter worked the provincial expresses. Members of the 2-6-2T "Wa" class shunted the marshalling yards and served one train a day branch lines.
In those times too I enjoyed rides behind the all-over cab steam locomotives that worked on the Takapuna Tramway. I always felt frustrated that so much of their machinery was hidden from view, but had no difficulty associating their high toned whistles with such modest locomotives. Over the years I experienced many trips on the suburban trains that served Auckland and its suburbs and was to note the dignified ease with which the big 4-6-4 "Wab" tank engines handled their loads with subdued blower at each stop. On the other hand the smaller 4-6-4 "Ww" tank locos seemed to use each stop to recover steam pressure with lots of assisted draft from the chimney blower. Later I learned that the larger engines had 33 sq. ft of fire-grate area while the smaller were 16.9 sq ft.
Double ended passenger and vehicular ferries plied the Auckland harbour and their centrally located boiler and engine rooms were closely observed from easy access viewing decks. So at home and on holiday it was a steam world.

INTRODUCTION TO STEAM ENGINES ARE ALIVE BLOG

The steam engine bug had hit me by the age of eight years by which time a number of memorable events had impacted upon me. One was the result of visits to the Palmerston North Summer and Winter Agricultural and Pastoral shows where among the many food and refreshment stalls there was one that prepared and sold popcorn and candy-floss. The popcorn oven and the candy-floss spinner were rotated and spun by a beautiful little chrome plated single cylinder horizontal steam engine served by a gas fired matching horizontal boiler.
In the fair ground were the usual merry-go-rounds powered by their centrally located vertical boilers and open frame steam engines. A little later came a 15 inch gauge circular railway track with its Cagney 4-4-0 coal fired steam locomotive and riding trucks.
The city model engineering club always had an indoor stand with a fascinating array of vertical and horizontal small and large model steam engines ticking over on compressed air.
At this time my father owned a small factory producing fancy cheeses for local markets. Part of the plant was a semi-portable four horse-power horizontal boiler that I was allowed to tend in raising steam and maintaining the water level with the feed-water injector.
On an open day of the Palmerston North Technical College I was taken to visit the engineering workshops. Wonder of wonders! Here was my first revelation of how it was done. There were forges, anvils, drilling machines, lathes and shapers. There was even a model steam engine crankshaft set up in a lathe.
I knew then where I wanted to go, and I went. But there were still five more years of primary school and three years of the above mentioned technical college from which I gained an engineering preliminary qualification. Steam engines of many forms were met with on the way.