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Steam Holiday on South Island, New Zealand 2002 |
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In October 2002, I accepted an invitation from John Raby to take advantage of his temporary posting to New Zealand to have a look at the steam scene there. Links to the various preservation scheme's web pages are given in my introductory notes. Not every site could be visited in the time available, I am sure the others would have proved equally interesting. Compared to UK preservation sites, I found those here to be relatively undeveloped, underfunded and undervisited. On the other hand, universally they still maintained the enthusiasm and friendliness to visitors that characterised the UK scene some years ago. Like my recent Java trip, this one embraced steam power in all its forms and hidden in here you will also find some strange 'steel on steel' vehicles.... There are separate pages on: Steam Holiday on North Island, New Zealand 2002 Mainline Steam on South Island, New Zealand 2002 Mainline Steam on North Island, New Zealand 2002 See also http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz for general information. I arrived in Auckland on 4th October and next day we flew to Christchurch, visiting the McLean's island site of the Canterbury Steam Preservation Society, http://www.steamscene.co.nz/ (link amended 26th April 2014), where we were made most welcome on the occasion of a gala day. Star of the show was their Price geared locomotive running trains round the oval circuit:
However, there were also over 30 traction engines at work:
As well as some of their collection of stationary steam engines including this Tangye:
Next day (6th October) we visited the Weka Pass Railway, http://www.wekapassrailway.co.nz/, basically they run more or less every first and third Sunday in the month with extra trains on holidays. Providing the fire risk is low they use their very attractive A class Pacific 428 up into the nearby limestone hills, including a photographic runpast:
We then went over to Greymouth where Shantytown (7th October), http://www.shantytown.co.nz/, was using its 'improved F class' 0-6-0T in preference to the Climax (which tends to be used in the winter months as it is very hot in the cab). A short passenger train is propelled (smokebox to coach) about 1km into the bush - photographically challenging! Mind the Wekas. Again we were made most welcome:
We then had a steamless day on the stunning (and deserted) west coast before reaching Queenstown, which is rapidly turning into a concrete jungle in the middle of an area of truly outstanding natural beauty. The best part of it is 90 year old TSS Earnslaw which operates daily trips on Lake Wakatipu. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSS_Earnslaw.:
Jack Neville has sent me this picture of the heart of the ship (added 15th March 2003).
At the bottom of the lake runs the Kingston Flyer,
On Saturday morning (12th October), we rode on the Taieri Gorge Railway, http://www.taieri.co.nz (link dead July 2020), a regular diesel hauled tourist train up the very attractive first section of the former Otago Central Railway. Near the unmissable Dunedin railway station, the Early Settlers Museum has a tram car and exhibits Josephine, a Fairlie, the first steam locomotive in the country (Vulcan Foundry 637/1872). See the website for more information - http://www.cityofdunedin.com/city/?page=sites_osm.
Later, we were the guests of the Ocean Beach Railway,
An unexpected bonus was a visit to the Dunedin Gasworks Museum http://www.gasworksmuseum.org.nz/ which contains several serviceable stationary steam engines once used as pumps. This Bryan Donkin (Chesterfield, UK) pump was not dissimilar to many I had seen in Java recently:
However, having spent my formative years in Stroud (UK), I was delighted to see no less than three engines from George Waller. The first shown here dates from 1939, the second smaller one from 1909:
Apparently, there is a woollen mill at Milton south-west of Dunedin which uses a lot of steam equipment routinely, but there was no time to investigate.... There is also a stationary steam engine museum at Clyde and another near Nelson according to the website http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz. The main steam interest over the next few days was the Mainline Steam special train, for which the climb up the Arthur's Pass westbound was undoubtedly the highlight:
We had no time to visit the Pleasant
Point Museum
Back in Christchurch, we had a quick look at the Ferrymead Heritage Park. It was a non-operational day and most (steam) railway exhibits were locked away. The friendly Park staff allowed us back in early the next day (at no extra charge) to inspect the locos. The star is undoubtedly an operational Price Cb although there is a Heisler (definitely non-operational) and a number of ex-NZR locomotives including a small D 2-4-0T which was under active restoration. It was obviously a site well worth revisiting on a running day. The tram workshops were particularly impressive with several recently completed items and several more ongoing projects. Some of the funding is provided by receipts from the tourist trams in the centre of Christchurch - see http://www.tram.co.nz for more information, although this link was not working on 26th April 2014..
South Island is undoubtedly 'unspoiled by progress' - get there before it is! Click here for the Australasian Steam Page |
