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Extant Road Steam in New Zealand |
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Click here for the "Surviving Steam Road Engines" index page. The attendance of several road engines from New Zealand at the Great Dorset Steam Fair in 2018 coincided with the offer of pictures of more from Phil Barnes and I thought it time I started to make a record of what exists in a country where populationwise there may be proportionately almost as many active as there are here in the UK. There are also regular gatherings whose ambience would be instantly recognisable to anyone who has been to a medium size UK steam rally. Necessarily there is a very different mix of engines, most were supplied for agricultural purposes. This is NOT a comprehensive list, I would welcome submissions to increase the coverage. Back in 1987, a New Zealand Traction Engine Register was published, copies are extremely hard to come by, a classic case of "rare as hen's teeth" A quick summation comes out at just under 300. of course only a fairly small proportion are serviceable at any time and of these I suspect that only a minority appear in public. What I believe was the largest steam gathering in New Zealand's history took place between March 24th and 26th 2006 at Rangiora, north of Christchurch. It was designated as a "Burrell Special Traction Engine Rally" and from the list which appears on https://steamscenes.org.uk/events/2006/new-zealand/, there were some 77 road engines present, Burrells making up just under half those present. Those in this list who attended, 25 in all, are indicated with a "@" in the notes column. There are some reference links for those contemplating a visit but frankly the web presence of road steam in New Zealand is minimal. Latest addition are Fowler 12921 (21st November 2023), engines from Wilson Lythgoe's April 2023 visit, a Garrett portable at the Goldfields Museum, Otago (19th October 2022), pictures from 2022 Horse Power Rally at Timaru (4th October 2022), two Case traction engines (5th September 2022), previously an Aveling and Porter traction engine 7484/1912 (11th April 2021) and a Hornsby portable (14th September 2020). Click on a thumbnail for a larger picture, then click the link or the 'back' button to return to this page. Steam Rollers
Traction Engines
Portable Engines
Steam Lorry
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There are many surviving road vehicles (traction engines) in New Zealand, Olwyn Whitehouse has sent me a list of some tractions engine related pages from his website (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzlscant/site_index.htm):
Traction Engines and Stationary Steam Engines in South Canterbury, N.Z. in October, 2011
Canterbury Traction and Stationary Engine Drivers and Firemen Award 1906
His site also contains an article which includes information on the Timaru steam crane.
There are a few pictures of engines from my own 2002 visit to New Zealand on this site
There are numerous annual traction engine rallies in New Zealand as evidenced by the pictures on this page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/branxholm/sets/72157621858570779/detail/, finding out about them is another matter altogether.
From a quick internet search there seems to be no all embracing site that covers the scene there, indeed finding permanent websites for recurrent festivals is a challenge!. So, please check out these major players and my apologies to those left out. Frankly the typical quality of their websites is poor (OK, crap) and giving up and using a Facebook page which is impenetrable to outsiders is a complete cop out.
North Island
Steam Traction Society Inc, Feilding http://www.steamtraction.org.nz/ (Great Manawatu Steam Fair, but link dead by October 2019).)
South Island
Canterbury Steam Preservation Society (McLeans Island) http://www.steamscene.co.nz/
Waipara Vintage Festival - biennial in theory but the last one seems to have been held in 2016.
Edendale Vintage Machinery Club http://www.edendalevmc.co.nz/ and https://www.facebook.com/Edendale-Vintage-Machinery-Club-757185841007874/
Southbrook Traction Engine Club https://www.facebook.com/Southbrook-Traction-Engine-Club-180900582363673/
There is a magazine 'Vintage Scene' - website www.vintagescene.co.nz.
Finally, this UK website has a record of all the 79 engines which attended the New Zealand Burrell Special Rally in 2006 - http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/events/2006/new-zealand/engines/.
Rob and Yuehong Dickinson
Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk