Happenings in 2016
(February 2016 to January 2017)
November 2016 to January 2017
November 5th: A bit of a jack up. Blair, Ewan, Greg and Colin travelled to Waverley on this day to fix the roof on our XP wagon which we are still waiting to be brought down from Waverley (we are waiting on Emmett’s to do this. If you know of a transporter that can do this let us know). While there we also jacked up the jigger shed onto a hire trailer and brought that back to Wanganui. This gave Blair the opportunity to try out the pulling power of his new ute.
November 15th: Both clubs enjoyed an evening at the Observatory. Members were told about the history of the observatory and although it was a bit cloudy we still got to see items through the telescope. A big that you to the Observatory team for opening their doors to us on this night.
December 17th: The annual Christmas BBQ held between SRW and WMR&ES was held on this night. A great turnout of about 25 members & partners enjoyed a great night. This year we tried something different and had it at the Tot Town Railway at Kowhai Park, with the train operating for member’s rides. A great evening was had by all, with the weather behaving itself also. A big thank you goes out to Warwick and Veronica Laws and the Lion’s club for organising this event.
December 17th: The annual Christmas BBQ held between SRW and WMR&ES was held on this night. A great turnout of about 25 members & partners enjoyed a great night. This year we tried something different and had it at the Tot Town Railway at Kowhai Park, with the train operating for member’s rides. A great evening was had by all, with the weather behaving itself also. A big thank you goes out to Warwick and Veronica Laws and the Lion’s club for organising this event.
January 21st to 23rd: SRW was once again involved with the Wanganui Vintage Weekend. On the Saturday we only had our shed open to the public and a sign on display down by the tram advertising the next 2 days. The Sunday and the Monday were busy with SRW offering Jiggers rides to the public for a $2 coin donation and our shed was again open for public viewing. We even had the KiwiRail track gang call in for a ride. This was the first time that Hamish’s 6 man trolley had been used. He had just finished its restoration. Although the weather tried its best to bring a stop to things we manage to come out on top. A big thank you to all members that helped out over the weekend and to members who helped with the advertising and pre planning the event.
Construction/ Maintenance: Members have continued to be busy down at the yard. We have cut all the trees back to the boundary at our turntable site and these have been chipped, also Ewan, Blair, Russell and Ross have been doing a lot of mowing and weed eating down at the turntable site to tidy this area up. Hamish has been working on the clubs Briggs and Stratton jigger engines. Ross and Colin have continued cleaning up items and re-painting them. Ewan has finished the point’s clamps and they came in handy during vintage weekend. Ewan and Greg have also been sanding down the walls inside the signal box getting them ready for a coat of new paint and Greg and Charley have been having a big clean up in the carriage. From the 31 July 16 until the 29 of January 17 members have done 936 man hours at the shed.
August to October 2016
August 24th: Despite a disappointing member turnout for our August club night, members that were there still enjoyed a “favourite book “night. Colin showed us 3 ancient books: - 1852 history of the earth & animated nature vol 1, 1882 The American home & farm cyclopaedia and around 1900 cyclopaedia of livestock & complete stock doctor. Greg showed us 6 books : - Every day knowledge in pictures, Engineer yearbook 1916, Inchleys theory of heat engines 1938, The engine drivers guide 1903, Popular electricity 1917 and a Catalogue of surveyors & engineers Instruments 1925. A very interesting night.
September 28th: Blair was going to speak about his and Lloryian’s trip to Raratonga but due to Lloryian being in Wellington hospital he couldn’t make it. Instead we had a video night. First up was a DVD, The story of the Melbourne Steam Traction Society. They have a huge complex housing Stationary Steam Engines, traction Engines, A Walking Dragline and lots of other steam gear, even a Sherman Tank. We then watched a video on 100 years of railways in the Manawatu Gorge 1891 – 1991, which featured an excursion hauled by F163 which was filmed from a jigger in front of the excursion which ran from Palmerston North to Woodville. It was an enjoyable night.
October 16th: Steam Inc was in town with Ja 1271 for the day. While in town it did a run to East Town and back for the Wanganui locals while its Wellington passengers enjoyed the city. A surprice to everyone was Blair was the fireman on the Ja for the P nth to Wanganui back to P Nth leg of the Jouney. SRW had our shed open to the public while the train was here and we got a few donations in our donation box which was realy appercated and there were also 2 visting traction engines and a fair ground musical organ on site when the train came in. Photos by Kylie Jordan and Charley Masters.
September 28th: Blair was going to speak about his and Lloryian’s trip to Raratonga but due to Lloryian being in Wellington hospital he couldn’t make it. Instead we had a video night. First up was a DVD, The story of the Melbourne Steam Traction Society. They have a huge complex housing Stationary Steam Engines, traction Engines, A Walking Dragline and lots of other steam gear, even a Sherman Tank. We then watched a video on 100 years of railways in the Manawatu Gorge 1891 – 1991, which featured an excursion hauled by F163 which was filmed from a jigger in front of the excursion which ran from Palmerston North to Woodville. It was an enjoyable night.
October 16th: Steam Inc was in town with Ja 1271 for the day. While in town it did a run to East Town and back for the Wanganui locals while its Wellington passengers enjoyed the city. A surprice to everyone was Blair was the fireman on the Ja for the P nth to Wanganui back to P Nth leg of the Jouney. SRW had our shed open to the public while the train was here and we got a few donations in our donation box which was realy appercated and there were also 2 visting traction engines and a fair ground musical organ on site when the train came in. Photos by Kylie Jordan and Charley Masters.
October 20th-21st: The Silver Fern Railcar visited Wanganui overnight on these two days. After leaving New Plymouth the railcar arrived on time into the Wanganui’s Taupo Quay rail yards at 3.20pm. The Crew were taken to their motels by Colin and Ray. It was then over to SteamRail members to provide security overnight. All went well and the railcar left after loading passengers at 9.30am the next morning. Thanks go to all SRW members who helped with unloading and loading and with security. Thanks also to Ken from Tranzsenic for the sandwiches and bananas.
October 26th: Greg was our guest speaker for this club night. He once again entertained us telling us about his recent trip overseas to Cambodia and Vietnam and the train trips he did while there. He showed videos and photos of his travels. A very interesting night, thanks Greg.
Construction/ Maintenance: We have continued working on the club main projects. The pipe frame off the front of the club jigger is now fixed and the head board is now back on. We are currently pricing more timber for the guards van restoration. New grease and oils have been brought for the clubs locos. Alot more of our tools, bolts and crane bits have been cleaned up. We have started to build our own points clamps for our opendays (see photos) instead of borrowing KiwiRail ones and we are also making our own air brake tester to run off our compresser.
Construction/ Maintenance: We have continued working on the club main projects. The pipe frame off the front of the club jigger is now fixed and the head board is now back on. We are currently pricing more timber for the guards van restoration. New grease and oils have been brought for the clubs locos. Alot more of our tools, bolts and crane bits have been cleaned up. We have started to build our own points clamps for our opendays (see photos) instead of borrowing KiwiRail ones and we are also making our own air brake tester to run off our compresser.
Track Loan: Most members will be aware that over the last few months the river boat Waimarie was dry docked next to the Dublin Street Bridge for its big survey. This was done by laying railways tracks down into the water, then using the modified original cradle they used to use at Q west for the boat to sit on. This was then pulled out of the water by two Traction engines. The boat was pulled from the water on September the 17th and went back in on the 5th of November. What members might not be aware of due to it not being publicize is the track used belongs to SRW. The group loaned the River Boat Trust the rails and in return for its use the trust is giving the club a reasonable donation. Photos taken by Charley Masters and Kylie Jordan.
Wanganui Vintage/Heritage Weekend: SRW will once again be involved with the Wanganui Vintage/Heritage weekend over the Wellington Anniversary weekend in January 2017. At this stage we plan to have our building open to the public on the Saturday 21st and Sunday the 22nd and we hope to do jigger rides on the Monday the 23rd. Mainline Steam have confirmed that they are keen to come along with their Jb on that weekend also (this will depend on if their carriages get mainline certifation done in time). If this happens we may also be asked to do the security over night for this train. If you can help over this weekend please let us know.
We still have one copy of the 2017 Railway Enthusiasts Society Calendar for sale. First in gets it. SRW & WMR&ES Members special price $13 each. Non-members $16 each. Let Blair Know ASAP.
We still have one copy of the 2017 Railway Enthusiasts Society Calendar for sale. First in gets it. SRW & WMR&ES Members special price $13 each. Non-members $16 each. Let Blair Know ASAP.
May to July 2016
May 25th: We enjoyed another one of our DVD and video nights.
June 6th: The club held another successful open day to the public offering Motor Trolley (Jigger Rides), a look at our restoration progress in the shed and light refreshments. Thanks again to members who helped out and to the following for the use of their trolleys - Ewan Pound, Blair Jordan and Langley Atkinson (KiwiRail). We even got a write up and picture in the paper. Photo taken by Bevan Conley (Wanganui Chronicle)
June 6th: The club held another successful open day to the public offering Motor Trolley (Jigger Rides), a look at our restoration progress in the shed and light refreshments. Thanks again to members who helped out and to the following for the use of their trolleys - Ewan Pound, Blair Jordan and Langley Atkinson (KiwiRail). We even got a write up and picture in the paper. Photo taken by Bevan Conley (Wanganui Chronicle)
June 22nd: On this night we enjoyed a video of a JA class steam loco taking serval attempts to climb the Westmere bank just out of Wanganui. Thanks to Eddie Firth for sharing this with us.
July 22nd: This was our annual combined Mid-Year Dinner with the Wanganui Model Railway & Engineering Society. It was meant to be at the Wanganui Greyhounds enjoying a meal at the Hatrick Restaurant, but due to them already running another function we changed it to Breakers Bar & Café at the Grand Hotel instead. 25 members attended. The food was great but unfortunately Breakers service let them down badly with a handful of members waiting almost 2 and a half hours to be fed. This is not good especially when you have a child (5 year old) waiting for food and they don’t get there food until after everyone else had finished. This is not the first time this has happened, a few years ago when the WMR&ES last visited the same thing happened.
Construction/ Maintenance: We have carried on basically with the same projects as the last newsletters report. The Price loco 212 (ex Imlay) has now had the final drive gearbox cleaned out and its gearbox oil pump removed and cleaned. Once the pump is back in this is will then be ready to put new oil in. More of the clubs tools and wheels etc have been cleaned up and put in the right places. The clubs band saw has had the electric motor cleaned, removing mud from last year’s flood. Its has been found that the clubs wooden four man motor trolley has some of its metal pipe frame which holds the head board on was cracked. The head board is now off and we are fixing the pipes. Finally a week before our open day on Queens birthday Monday we found that someone had cut off the handbrake of our R class flat deck bogie wagon down by the turntable with a hack saw. They broke the hack saw in the process and this was taken to the police for testing. A week after our open day and the write up in the paper about the trolley rides what also mention the thieft of the handbrake it was returned. Police have since checked this for finger prints. The first photo shows inside Tr113 final drive gear box (Price 212 gear box looks the same), second photo is the oil pump ex Price 212 and the final two photos are of the cut handbrake. Since April members have done approximately 403 man hours down at the shed.
July 22nd: This was our annual combined Mid-Year Dinner with the Wanganui Model Railway & Engineering Society. It was meant to be at the Wanganui Greyhounds enjoying a meal at the Hatrick Restaurant, but due to them already running another function we changed it to Breakers Bar & Café at the Grand Hotel instead. 25 members attended. The food was great but unfortunately Breakers service let them down badly with a handful of members waiting almost 2 and a half hours to be fed. This is not good especially when you have a child (5 year old) waiting for food and they don’t get there food until after everyone else had finished. This is not the first time this has happened, a few years ago when the WMR&ES last visited the same thing happened.
Construction/ Maintenance: We have carried on basically with the same projects as the last newsletters report. The Price loco 212 (ex Imlay) has now had the final drive gearbox cleaned out and its gearbox oil pump removed and cleaned. Once the pump is back in this is will then be ready to put new oil in. More of the clubs tools and wheels etc have been cleaned up and put in the right places. The clubs band saw has had the electric motor cleaned, removing mud from last year’s flood. Its has been found that the clubs wooden four man motor trolley has some of its metal pipe frame which holds the head board on was cracked. The head board is now off and we are fixing the pipes. Finally a week before our open day on Queens birthday Monday we found that someone had cut off the handbrake of our R class flat deck bogie wagon down by the turntable with a hack saw. They broke the hack saw in the process and this was taken to the police for testing. A week after our open day and the write up in the paper about the trolley rides what also mention the thieft of the handbrake it was returned. Police have since checked this for finger prints. The first photo shows inside Tr113 final drive gear box (Price 212 gear box looks the same), second photo is the oil pump ex Price 212 and the final two photos are of the cut handbrake. Since April members have done approximately 403 man hours down at the shed.
SRW committee will look into the possibility of another Open Day/jigger rides event before the end of the year. We seem to do pretty well running these events on long weekends so we may look at Labour Weekend (Monday 24h October 2016). Also there is a possibility we may need members help with my works Christmas function. We have been asked if we can give jigger rides for the kids. Dates and times are yet to be confirmed if this happens.
SRW has now sold out of the 2017 Rail Scene Calendars. Thank you to all members of both groups who brought one. However we now have the 2017 Railway Enthusiasts Society Calendar for sale. We have a limited number of 8 of these left so it will be first in gets one. SRW & WMR&ES Members special price $13 each. Non-members $16 each. Let Blair Know ASAP.
SRW has now sold out of the 2017 Rail Scene Calendars. Thank you to all members of both groups who brought one. However we now have the 2017 Railway Enthusiasts Society Calendar for sale. We have a limited number of 8 of these left so it will be first in gets one. SRW & WMR&ES Members special price $13 each. Non-members $16 each. Let Blair Know ASAP.
February to April 2016
February 24th: Greg Tinnion was our guest speaker on this club night. Greg talked about his South Island trip. He did the southern leg of the Steam Inc rail tour from CHCH to Invercargill with Ab 608 from Tuesday 20 Oct 2015 to Thursday 22 Oct 2015. A very interesting night. Thanks Greg.
March 23rd: On this night we combined with WMR&ES with a visit to the Tot Town Railway at Kowhai Park. Lions club members Warwick Laws and Jim Ennis talked about the railways history and future plans, a little bit about how the floods last June affected them and how they built and operated the points. They also gave us information on the two trains, the older one (steam) being built at the East Town Workshops over 50 years ago and the newer (diesel) being built in Auckland for $100,000. It was then time to ride the rails and for members to have a drive of the diesel loco. Driving the loco was really easy, even Kylie had a turn and Keegan also enjoyed tooting the horn while he rode in the cab with his Uncle Blair at the controls. We thank Warwick and the Lion’s members for their hospitality. A great and enjoyable evening. Written by Colin Hughes. Photos by Ewan Pound and Charley Masters.
April 18th & 19th: SteamRail was again hired to do security on a visiting train on these two nights. Da 1431 (Steam Inc.) was at Aramoho for two nights while it was running The Press Readers North Island Tour Charter. The Da was towed from Marton to Wanganui by Dc 4191 to avoiding running long hood first on this part of the journey as it had just come down from National Park and there is no turntable at Marton. It was then turned on the Wanganui turntable. The train left on Wednesday morning for New Plymouth and came back through heading for home on Saturday the 23rd of April. A big thank you to all members who helped out. Photos by Charley Masters and Sandra Jordan.
April 24th: The Club’s Annual General Meeting. The Committee stayed the same as the previous year and is as follows: - Board Chairman Blair Jordan and Board Managers Colin Hughes, Greg Tinnion, Russell Jackson, Ewan Pound and Hamish Coull. We finished off the night talking about Club projects.
Construction/ Maintenance: Basically the flood clean up continues. The guys have now drained the oil out of the final drive gear box of Price 212 loco (ex Imlay) to get rid of the water and mud ex the flood last June. This job has turned out bigger than planned. It turns out that even though the engine is not operational at the moment when moved the oil pump on the side of the gear box still pumps and it has been forcing water around the gears and the bearing, some of the gears are starting to show a bit of rust. This is not good news. They are currently trying to get the pump off so we can clean this out also before we put new oil in. Let’s hope it doesn’t do any damage to the bearings. Blair’s loco (TR 113) final drive will be next to do once finished with Price 212 but at this stage looking inside the gear box it doesn’t look as bad as the Imlay loco. Price loco 149 (ex Waiouru Army Museum) is now up and running again after we had to purchase a new battery. Work has continued on the guards van with a new bottom plate being put in the balcony end of the van and a lot of the items that were under mud during the flood have now been cleaned up also. The signal box (ex North end of Aramoho, now used as our smoko room) has been hooked up to the power. No more need for extension cords running along the ground now. The new storage cabinet has now got all the shelves in it and it is getting used to hold our paint etc. Since last July members have done approximately 1075 man hours down at the shed.
Construction/ Maintenance: Basically the flood clean up continues. The guys have now drained the oil out of the final drive gear box of Price 212 loco (ex Imlay) to get rid of the water and mud ex the flood last June. This job has turned out bigger than planned. It turns out that even though the engine is not operational at the moment when moved the oil pump on the side of the gear box still pumps and it has been forcing water around the gears and the bearing, some of the gears are starting to show a bit of rust. This is not good news. They are currently trying to get the pump off so we can clean this out also before we put new oil in. Let’s hope it doesn’t do any damage to the bearings. Blair’s loco (TR 113) final drive will be next to do once finished with Price 212 but at this stage looking inside the gear box it doesn’t look as bad as the Imlay loco. Price loco 149 (ex Waiouru Army Museum) is now up and running again after we had to purchase a new battery. Work has continued on the guards van with a new bottom plate being put in the balcony end of the van and a lot of the items that were under mud during the flood have now been cleaned up also. The signal box (ex North end of Aramoho, now used as our smoko room) has been hooked up to the power. No more need for extension cords running along the ground now. The new storage cabinet has now got all the shelves in it and it is getting used to hold our paint etc. Since last July members have done approximately 1075 man hours down at the shed.
Donations:
Thank you to the following for their donations to the club.
Bill Graham – Old loco decoking shovel found at Kai Iwi tunnel bypass job.
Thank you to the following for their donations to the club.
Bill Graham – Old loco decoking shovel found at Kai Iwi tunnel bypass job.
Retirements
SRW would like to wish Phil Wagener (Tea Pot) all the best and a long and happy retirement from KiwiRail after 50 years’ service with the railways. Phil went out on a high working two steam specials before he retired. Blair was lucky enough to be working with him on his last two steam runs (see photos below, the 1st two photos were the Wab to Taihape on 12th of March and the 3rd photo is of the Ja to Wellington on the 19th of March). His final run was on the Capital Connection (1203) to Wellington on Friday 22nd April with Dfb 7158 on the head.
Other drivers to also retire at the same time are Ray Gutschlag, Eric Cairncross, Colin Porteous, Pruden Bardell, and Bob Ngataierua. Although the club hasn’t had as much to do with these drivers as we have with Tea Pot (some of them would have driven the excursions we have run over the years) we would also like to wish them all the best in their retirements.