Happenings in 2017
(February 2017 to January 2018)
November 2017 to January 2018
December 2nd: This was our November club night that got moved because of a previous booking. Members enjoyed a ride on the river boat MV Wairua up to Upokongaro where they have a great lunch at the local café.
December 9th: The annual combined Christmas BBQ held between the two groups was held on this night. For the second year in a row we 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 20th, 21st & 22nd: SRW was once again involved with the Wanganui Vintage weekend. This year we had our doors open to the public on the Saturday and Sunday only with some of our gear outside on display. On the Monday we gave Jigger rides as well. We also had a KiwiRail truck and some of the track tools on display care of Hamish and the WMR&ES had a layout on show advertising their club also. Thanks to Paul, Mel and Rob for manning the layout over the weekend. Mainline Steam were in town offering short shuttle runs to East Town and Kai Iwi with their Jb loco on the first 2 days. We were hired to do the security of the train overnight. Unfortunately they did have a few issues over the weekend and this resulted in trains running a bit late and one trip was cancelled. There was a miss print in the advertising and ticket printing. SteamRail was named as running the train trips instead of Mainline Steam. This resulted in people turning up at our doors asking for tickets and of course the odd complaint directed at us in error when things went wrong. We have now had an apology from both Mainline and a Wanganui Vintage Weekend Committee member about the mistake. Other than that we were well supported by the local public and we thank members once again for all your help. Mainline Steam also sends out a big thank you to the club for all our help. Members you once again did our club proud. We must also give a big thank you to the Wanganui Fire brigade who came out twice to fill the Jb up with water for free.
December 9th: The annual combined Christmas BBQ held between the two groups was held on this night. For the second year in a row we 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 20th, 21st & 22nd: SRW was once again involved with the Wanganui Vintage weekend. This year we had our doors open to the public on the Saturday and Sunday only with some of our gear outside on display. On the Monday we gave Jigger rides as well. We also had a KiwiRail truck and some of the track tools on display care of Hamish and the WMR&ES had a layout on show advertising their club also. Thanks to Paul, Mel and Rob for manning the layout over the weekend. Mainline Steam were in town offering short shuttle runs to East Town and Kai Iwi with their Jb loco on the first 2 days. We were hired to do the security of the train overnight. Unfortunately they did have a few issues over the weekend and this resulted in trains running a bit late and one trip was cancelled. There was a miss print in the advertising and ticket printing. SteamRail was named as running the train trips instead of Mainline Steam. This resulted in people turning up at our doors asking for tickets and of course the odd complaint directed at us in error when things went wrong. We have now had an apology from both Mainline and a Wanganui Vintage Weekend Committee member about the mistake. Other than that we were well supported by the local public and we thank members once again for all your help. Mainline Steam also sends out a big thank you to the club for all our help. Members you once again did our club proud. We must also give a big thank you to the Wanganui Fire brigade who came out twice to fill the Jb up with water for free.
Construction/ Maintenance: Work continues on the many club projects we are doing down at the yard. Members have had a big clean up before Vintage weekend with getting rid of the scrap etc. We have also moved a lot of the spare parts for the drewry loco down to one of the wagons at the turntable. Hamish and Jamie have hooked up a pair of tablet machines as a working display for when we have our doors open to the public. Price loco no 212 now has its oil pump back in for the final driver and we will be putting new oil in it shortly and more paint has been stripped off the crane.
September To October 2017
August 23rd: We had another one of our enjoyable DVD/Video nights.
September 27th: On this club night we meet at our shed to organise what we were going to display at the upcoming WMR&ES Model Railway Show at the end of the month.
September 30th & October 1st: SRW had a display at the WMR&ES model railways show over this weekend. We once again had railway memorabilia on display along with Colin’s Jigger. We took this opportunity to advertise our upcoming jigger ride days. The public were very interested in what we had to show. This was a great show and we congratulate the WMR&ES on a great weekend.
October 25th: The club decided to visit the tram barn for this club night. Members enjoyed having a look around the museum, including a new tram that had not long arrived on site. This tram was used by Peter Jackson in the King Kong Movie. Members finished off the night having a ride on the Wanganui Tram. A big thank you to the members of the Tram group for showing us around. Photos by Kylie Jordan.
September 27th: On this club night we meet at our shed to organise what we were going to display at the upcoming WMR&ES Model Railway Show at the end of the month.
September 30th & October 1st: SRW had a display at the WMR&ES model railways show over this weekend. We once again had railway memorabilia on display along with Colin’s Jigger. We took this opportunity to advertise our upcoming jigger ride days. The public were very interested in what we had to show. This was a great show and we congratulate the WMR&ES on a great weekend.
October 25th: The club decided to visit the tram barn for this club night. Members enjoyed having a look around the museum, including a new tram that had not long arrived on site. This tram was used by Peter Jackson in the King Kong Movie. Members finished off the night having a ride on the Wanganui Tram. A big thank you to the members of the Tram group for showing us around. Photos by Kylie Jordan.
Construction/ Maintenance: Work continues on the many club projects we are doing down at the yard. A big thank you to Colin Pound who has machined timber for the door frame in the ex Aramoho North end signal box. More of the old paint on the back of the cab of Price loco 212 has been taken off replaced with a bright new red paint. The loco is slowly starting to look very smart as we return it back to its original red colour. A couple of our tablet machines are also getting worked on. We have up dated phone numbers on our contact signs on our buildings and these have been put back up on the Workshop building and the big signal box down the turntable end. Members have also spent time with weed eaters and saws down by the turntable site keeping it nice and tidy.
Upcoming Wanganui Vintage Weekend: SRW will once again be opening our doors to the public during the Wanganui Vintage Weekend (Wellington Anniversary Weekend). At this stage we will have our doors open, maybe locos outside and cold drinks etc for sale on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st. We have heard that Mainline Steam may be in with their train for weekend also (Saturday and Sunday only). If this happens we have been asked to do security of the train on the Saturday night. They will also want the use of our steps etc. On Monday the 22nd we hope to do jigger rides again (if no train on the Sunday we might also do jiggers rides that day also, depending on KiwiRail). We are still waiting to hear from KiwiRail if this is ok. Members help over this weekend would be appreciated.
Security of Trains: SRW has over the last few months done security on two different trains that spent nights in Wanganui. The first one was for a combined KiwiRail (re locos) and Feilding & Districts Steam Rail Soc’ (re carriages) trip on Sunday night the 17th of September. Because the train (with Dfb loco) came from New Plymouth it could not tow the carriages into town long hood first due to visibility issues. Blair (your president) was sent from P Nth in a light loco (Dc) to tow the train into town for the night. Because the Dfb had to lead the train north from Marton to National Park the next morning and the Dc had to go back to P Nth, both locos needed to be turned. To save time we ended up with a loco at each end of the carriages. The next morning the Dc towed the train to Marton where it was cut off the train and returned to P Nth light loco with Blair, while the Dfb at the other end then took the train north to Nat Park. Photos taken by Charley Masters and Hamish Coull.
Upcoming Wanganui Vintage Weekend: SRW will once again be opening our doors to the public during the Wanganui Vintage Weekend (Wellington Anniversary Weekend). At this stage we will have our doors open, maybe locos outside and cold drinks etc for sale on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st. We have heard that Mainline Steam may be in with their train for weekend also (Saturday and Sunday only). If this happens we have been asked to do security of the train on the Saturday night. They will also want the use of our steps etc. On Monday the 22nd we hope to do jigger rides again (if no train on the Sunday we might also do jiggers rides that day also, depending on KiwiRail). We are still waiting to hear from KiwiRail if this is ok. Members help over this weekend would be appreciated.
Security of Trains: SRW has over the last few months done security on two different trains that spent nights in Wanganui. The first one was for a combined KiwiRail (re locos) and Feilding & Districts Steam Rail Soc’ (re carriages) trip on Sunday night the 17th of September. Because the train (with Dfb loco) came from New Plymouth it could not tow the carriages into town long hood first due to visibility issues. Blair (your president) was sent from P Nth in a light loco (Dc) to tow the train into town for the night. Because the Dfb had to lead the train north from Marton to National Park the next morning and the Dc had to go back to P Nth, both locos needed to be turned. To save time we ended up with a loco at each end of the carriages. The next morning the Dc towed the train to Marton where it was cut off the train and returned to P Nth light loco with Blair, while the Dfb at the other end then took the train north to Nat Park. Photos taken by Charley Masters and Hamish Coull.
The second one for Steam Inc was for two nights October 15Th & 16th, looking after their Da loco and carriages. These nights are a good fund raiser for the club. A big thank you to all members who helped out with the security. Photos by Blair Jordan
We have now also been asked if we could do the security on Mainline Steam’s Jb loco and carriages if it visits early next year for the Wanganui Vintage Weekend. This will be a Saturday night. If you can help please let Blair (president) or a committee member know as soon as possible. Like last time we plan to do a rosters system so each member will only need to be down at the yard for a couple of hours at a time.
May to July 2017
May 24th: We had another hobby night for this club night. Members brought along items they collected not to do with Railways.
June 4th & 5th: Over Queens Birthday weekend SRW opened our shed again to the public offering Jigger rides. This time the weather behaved itself. A lot of families had a fun time riding up and down the yard. Thank you to all members that helped out. Unfortunately we did have a small incident on the Monday. As we were packing up we gave the clubs Velocipede a test drive. This got jammed in a set of points with the jokey wheel getting broken off. There were no members of the public involved with the accident and no one was hurt as it was a very slow speed accident. We have investigated this event and found the spokes on the wheels were lose from age. Hamish is rebuilding the wheel for the club. We have notified NZTA about the incident.
June 4th & 5th: Over Queens Birthday weekend SRW opened our shed again to the public offering Jigger rides. This time the weather behaved itself. A lot of families had a fun time riding up and down the yard. Thank you to all members that helped out. Unfortunately we did have a small incident on the Monday. As we were packing up we gave the clubs Velocipede a test drive. This got jammed in a set of points with the jokey wheel getting broken off. There were no members of the public involved with the accident and no one was hurt as it was a very slow speed accident. We have investigated this event and found the spokes on the wheels were lose from age. Hamish is rebuilding the wheel for the club. We have notified NZTA about the incident.
June 28th: On this club night we had a Something Old night. Members brought along something they have in their collection that is really old. There were some very interesting things on show.
July 22nd: We combined with WMR&ES again on this night for the Club’s combined mid-year dinner. 25 members attended the meal at the Liffiton Castle. A good meal was had with quite a few going back for seconds and a few for thirds, a great time had by all. Thanks to the Liffiton Castle staff and to all who attended.
Construction/ Maintenance: Work continues on the club projects we are doing down at the yard. The ex Aramoho North end signal box has been getting its inside walls painted along with some of the outside walls of the jigger shed ex Waverley. All our files, plans and books are also still getting sorted into some sort of order. Some new paint has also been getting put onto the cab of Price loco 212. Steam crane 120 continues to get items cleaned up also.
Upcoming WMR&ES Show: SRW will once again have a display at the WMR&ES model show on the 30th of September and the 1st of October. Members helping with our display would be great.
Security of Train: SRW has been asked by both KiwiRail (re loco) and Feilding & Districts Steam Rail Soc’ (re carriages) to do overnight security of the train on Sunday night the 17th of September. At this stage we are not sure of where this will be. Both the Taupo Quay yard next to our shed and the East Town yard has been mentioned. SRW are not keen on this if it is over at East Town due to passing trains, sitting in cars with no power and train being in yard well away from road etc. We have told them if it’s next to our shed we will do this, so we will once again need members help with this. If you can help please let me know ASAP. Hopefully we will be able to confirm shortly if we are doing this or not.
July 22nd: We combined with WMR&ES again on this night for the Club’s combined mid-year dinner. 25 members attended the meal at the Liffiton Castle. A good meal was had with quite a few going back for seconds and a few for thirds, a great time had by all. Thanks to the Liffiton Castle staff and to all who attended.
Construction/ Maintenance: Work continues on the club projects we are doing down at the yard. The ex Aramoho North end signal box has been getting its inside walls painted along with some of the outside walls of the jigger shed ex Waverley. All our files, plans and books are also still getting sorted into some sort of order. Some new paint has also been getting put onto the cab of Price loco 212. Steam crane 120 continues to get items cleaned up also.
Upcoming WMR&ES Show: SRW will once again have a display at the WMR&ES model show on the 30th of September and the 1st of October. Members helping with our display would be great.
Security of Train: SRW has been asked by both KiwiRail (re loco) and Feilding & Districts Steam Rail Soc’ (re carriages) to do overnight security of the train on Sunday night the 17th of September. At this stage we are not sure of where this will be. Both the Taupo Quay yard next to our shed and the East Town yard has been mentioned. SRW are not keen on this if it is over at East Town due to passing trains, sitting in cars with no power and train being in yard well away from road etc. We have told them if it’s next to our shed we will do this, so we will once again need members help with this. If you can help please let me know ASAP. Hopefully we will be able to confirm shortly if we are doing this or not.
February to April 2017
February 22nd: This was our first club night for the year. We had another one of our enjoyable DVD/Video nights.
March 21st: On this night we were meant to have a combined visit with the Wanganui Model Railway & Engineering Society to the Airport Control Tower, but unfortunately the group involved with the control tower restoration could not get enough members to show us through. We will look at this again later on in the year. Both clubs ended up having an enjoyable DVD/Running night at the WMR&ES clubrooms instead.
April 26th: The Club’s Annual General Meeting. Only 8 members turned up. 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 and recent trips some of the members had taken. See Presidents report below.
Construction/ Maintenance: Work continues on the various projects we are doing down at the yard. The ex Aramoho North end signal box has 2 inside walls stripped of paint and are now being sanded ready for painting. The jigger shed ex Waverley has been getting its rotten barge boards replaced. All our files, plans and books are also still getting sorted. Work on the Price loco 212, steam crane 120 and the guards van F 733 have slowed up a bit while we get the other stuff done. Thank you also to the members who helped lift everything up off the ground just before Easter just in case we flooded again with the bad weather warning. Wanganui and SRW were very lucky that we didn’t get the rain that they forecast.
Thank you: To the Fordyce and Allen Families who donated to the club a lot of railway books from the Estate of the late Les Fordyce. Les got a lot of enjoyment with our club and it was his and the families wishes for these to come to us. We also got books donated to us from David Groves.
Farewell Old Friend: It was a shock to hear of the passing of long time SRW club member and past president Rob Walker. Rob was born in Feilding on the 25th November 1937 and passed away peacefully at the Wanganui Hospital on Sunday 5th of March. As mentioned Rob was a member of the club for many years and held the President position for many of those, only standing down from that job about 4 years ago. Over the past few years Rob’s health has been up and down after that terrible car crash in which he lost his wife Bett several years ago. The clubs thoughts are with his family and friends over this sad time.
March 21st: On this night we were meant to have a combined visit with the Wanganui Model Railway & Engineering Society to the Airport Control Tower, but unfortunately the group involved with the control tower restoration could not get enough members to show us through. We will look at this again later on in the year. Both clubs ended up having an enjoyable DVD/Running night at the WMR&ES clubrooms instead.
April 26th: The Club’s Annual General Meeting. Only 8 members turned up. 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 and recent trips some of the members had taken. See Presidents report below.
Construction/ Maintenance: Work continues on the various projects we are doing down at the yard. The ex Aramoho North end signal box has 2 inside walls stripped of paint and are now being sanded ready for painting. The jigger shed ex Waverley has been getting its rotten barge boards replaced. All our files, plans and books are also still getting sorted. Work on the Price loco 212, steam crane 120 and the guards van F 733 have slowed up a bit while we get the other stuff done. Thank you also to the members who helped lift everything up off the ground just before Easter just in case we flooded again with the bad weather warning. Wanganui and SRW were very lucky that we didn’t get the rain that they forecast.
Thank you: To the Fordyce and Allen Families who donated to the club a lot of railway books from the Estate of the late Les Fordyce. Les got a lot of enjoyment with our club and it was his and the families wishes for these to come to us. We also got books donated to us from David Groves.
Farewell Old Friend: It was a shock to hear of the passing of long time SRW club member and past president Rob Walker. Rob was born in Feilding on the 25th November 1937 and passed away peacefully at the Wanganui Hospital on Sunday 5th of March. As mentioned Rob was a member of the club for many years and held the President position for many of those, only standing down from that job about 4 years ago. Over the past few years Rob’s health has been up and down after that terrible car crash in which he lost his wife Bett several years ago. The clubs thoughts are with his family and friends over this sad time.
SteamRail Wanganui Presidents Report 2016/17
For the fourth time I have great pleasure in presenting my President’s Report for SRW.
It has been another busy year for the club. I have once again enjoyed my term as President. I would like to start off once again with a big thank you to the committee and members who have helped me or put up with me not being able to make every meeting.
Club Highlights: We have carried on over the last 12 months running our public Open Days again offering Motor Trolley/Jigger rides. On most occasions these seem to get a good number of the public through and at this stage other than member’s subs this is the biggest money earner for the club. We are looking at doing this again on Queens Birthday Weekend Sunday and/or Monday (June 4th & 5th).
As always one of the biggest highlights for me is the ability of the club and our members to be able to work with other clubs and organisations when needed. I know that SRW and WMR&ES regularly help out each other with shows and combined club nights etc. but also the other groups we deal with, be it the visiting train excursions (where we might help out with tickets sales, security and crowd control) or our members heading out of town to help with other groups planned events (e.g. the Steam Traction Society and the Waitara Group etc.). I know they appreciate our help.
October last year we loaned the Riverboat Trust 4 lengths of our track so they could pull the Waimarie out of the water for its 10 year survey. This took a lot longer than planned and we didn’t get the track back until early this year. To thank us for the use of the track they gave the club a good donation.
Fundraising: Our main fundraising over the last 12 months have been once again our Motor Trolley/Jigger Rides and Open Days and the security of visiting trains to Wanganui. Other fundraising the club has done also include scrap metal recycling and donations from visitors have also helped. With costs rising every year, we will continue to look at ideas for fundraising. If you have any ideas let the committee know.
Donations: We have been donated a lot of railway related items over the last 12 months, eg. Railway books and tools etc. Always a big help is the members who donate items to the club. A big thank you to everyone who has donated items to the club over the year.
Training: Not a lot has been happening here this year, we have not moved the locos for a while now and most of the members who help out down the yard are now due for the shunters refresher course. We have been holding off doing this until we can move the locos again. Hopefully this will not be too far away before this happens. We are also planning more Open Days if you are keen to help out and be trained at either a shunter or trolley driver please let us know.
Club Projects: We are always busy down at the shed. Work has continued on the ex North End Aramoho Signal Box, with members stripping the old paint inside the building. Work on the East Town steam crane E120 has slowed down a bit with members concentrating on items from the flood. Price loco no 212 (ex Imlay) still has its final drive oil drained out. We have removed the pump to clean this up also. Hopefully it will not be too long now before this is back together and we can start moving the locos again. Work has also continued on with the Guards Van, Motor Trolley and other tools and items we have. We have now transported the ex Waverley Jigger down to our site and members have started to clean this up also. But we are still waiting on the wagon from Waverley to get transported down. We have been waiting on Emmett’s Crane Hire and a truck to be available in the area to do this, but after sending an email to them last month, I’m still waiting on a reply (it is now almost 3 years since we first talked to them about bringing it down). There is always plenty to do down at the yard so come along and give us a hand. Since last A.G.M members have done about 1500 man hours down at the shed.
Club Nights: Our club nights have been entertaining again with a variety of different programs. We have enjoyed DVD/ Video nights, BBQ’s, Mid-Year Dinner, Other Hobbies nights, Guest Speakers plus visits to the Ward Observatory. We combined our club nights with the WMR&ES on a few occasions for visits with the last one being the Tot Town Railway at Kowhai Park. A big thankyou to all those who have hosted one of our club nights. It is still a bit of a concern the lack of member numbers we get on a few of these nights and if members have any ideas on programs for these nights please let us know.
Newsletter: I have also continued with the newsletter and have once again had good feedback. We have had a good range of stories in this over the year. Thank you to all who have contributed to this. I couldn't do this without you. Once again our thanks go out to Greg Tinnion and Phillips Electrical for their help with printing of the newsletters. My apologies with a few issues of this being late.
Membership: Last year we had 27 members paid up and 17 have already paid this year’s subs. It was a shock to hear about the passing of long time SRW member Rob Walker. The club’s thoughts are with his families at this sad time and also go out to any other member who have lost loved ones over the last 12 months.
My Life: I love my job as a Locomotive Engineer (driver) with KiwiRail. I’ve now been driving out by myself for almost two and a half years and have now also been certified as a mainline fireman for the steam loco excursions. Over the year I have worked on the mainline excursions with Wab 794, Ab 608 and Ja 1271. Just in the last few weeks I have been getting used to oil fired locos. Work has mentioned they will need me on the 7 of May for Tangiwai Disaster Memorial Upgrade Unveiling as there is a steam train coming down from Auckland (Ja 1275) and one coming up from P Nth (Jb 1236) for this event. It’s hard to believe that July this year I would have been with KiwiRail for 6 years, the time goes so quick. I must thank everyone for the support you have given me over this time. Being a shift worker does make it harder for me to get across to club meetings and the help and understanding I have had from members because of this has been appreciated. I enjoy my roles with SRW and look forward to continuing, that’s if you want me of course.
The Next 12 Months: This upcoming year looks like it will be another busy one for the club. We are looking at dates when we can do more Motor Trolley rides and Open Days, we are also planning some full day/weekend working bees. We will look into costings of hiring a train again for a trip somewhere also. Both Steam Inc and Feilding Steam Rail have trips planned to Wanganui later on in the year and there has been some early rumours that both the Pahiatua group and Mainline Steam are looking at coming across to next year’s Vintage Weekend. All members’ help over the next 12 months would be appreciated.
Once again I would like to thank everyone who has helped me over the past year and a big thank you to all committee members for their help.
Thank you
Blair Jordan
President SRW.
It has been another busy year for the club. I have once again enjoyed my term as President. I would like to start off once again with a big thank you to the committee and members who have helped me or put up with me not being able to make every meeting.
Club Highlights: We have carried on over the last 12 months running our public Open Days again offering Motor Trolley/Jigger rides. On most occasions these seem to get a good number of the public through and at this stage other than member’s subs this is the biggest money earner for the club. We are looking at doing this again on Queens Birthday Weekend Sunday and/or Monday (June 4th & 5th).
As always one of the biggest highlights for me is the ability of the club and our members to be able to work with other clubs and organisations when needed. I know that SRW and WMR&ES regularly help out each other with shows and combined club nights etc. but also the other groups we deal with, be it the visiting train excursions (where we might help out with tickets sales, security and crowd control) or our members heading out of town to help with other groups planned events (e.g. the Steam Traction Society and the Waitara Group etc.). I know they appreciate our help.
October last year we loaned the Riverboat Trust 4 lengths of our track so they could pull the Waimarie out of the water for its 10 year survey. This took a lot longer than planned and we didn’t get the track back until early this year. To thank us for the use of the track they gave the club a good donation.
Fundraising: Our main fundraising over the last 12 months have been once again our Motor Trolley/Jigger Rides and Open Days and the security of visiting trains to Wanganui. Other fundraising the club has done also include scrap metal recycling and donations from visitors have also helped. With costs rising every year, we will continue to look at ideas for fundraising. If you have any ideas let the committee know.
Donations: We have been donated a lot of railway related items over the last 12 months, eg. Railway books and tools etc. Always a big help is the members who donate items to the club. A big thank you to everyone who has donated items to the club over the year.
Training: Not a lot has been happening here this year, we have not moved the locos for a while now and most of the members who help out down the yard are now due for the shunters refresher course. We have been holding off doing this until we can move the locos again. Hopefully this will not be too far away before this happens. We are also planning more Open Days if you are keen to help out and be trained at either a shunter or trolley driver please let us know.
Club Projects: We are always busy down at the shed. Work has continued on the ex North End Aramoho Signal Box, with members stripping the old paint inside the building. Work on the East Town steam crane E120 has slowed down a bit with members concentrating on items from the flood. Price loco no 212 (ex Imlay) still has its final drive oil drained out. We have removed the pump to clean this up also. Hopefully it will not be too long now before this is back together and we can start moving the locos again. Work has also continued on with the Guards Van, Motor Trolley and other tools and items we have. We have now transported the ex Waverley Jigger down to our site and members have started to clean this up also. But we are still waiting on the wagon from Waverley to get transported down. We have been waiting on Emmett’s Crane Hire and a truck to be available in the area to do this, but after sending an email to them last month, I’m still waiting on a reply (it is now almost 3 years since we first talked to them about bringing it down). There is always plenty to do down at the yard so come along and give us a hand. Since last A.G.M members have done about 1500 man hours down at the shed.
Club Nights: Our club nights have been entertaining again with a variety of different programs. We have enjoyed DVD/ Video nights, BBQ’s, Mid-Year Dinner, Other Hobbies nights, Guest Speakers plus visits to the Ward Observatory. We combined our club nights with the WMR&ES on a few occasions for visits with the last one being the Tot Town Railway at Kowhai Park. A big thankyou to all those who have hosted one of our club nights. It is still a bit of a concern the lack of member numbers we get on a few of these nights and if members have any ideas on programs for these nights please let us know.
Newsletter: I have also continued with the newsletter and have once again had good feedback. We have had a good range of stories in this over the year. Thank you to all who have contributed to this. I couldn't do this without you. Once again our thanks go out to Greg Tinnion and Phillips Electrical for their help with printing of the newsletters. My apologies with a few issues of this being late.
Membership: Last year we had 27 members paid up and 17 have already paid this year’s subs. It was a shock to hear about the passing of long time SRW member Rob Walker. The club’s thoughts are with his families at this sad time and also go out to any other member who have lost loved ones over the last 12 months.
My Life: I love my job as a Locomotive Engineer (driver) with KiwiRail. I’ve now been driving out by myself for almost two and a half years and have now also been certified as a mainline fireman for the steam loco excursions. Over the year I have worked on the mainline excursions with Wab 794, Ab 608 and Ja 1271. Just in the last few weeks I have been getting used to oil fired locos. Work has mentioned they will need me on the 7 of May for Tangiwai Disaster Memorial Upgrade Unveiling as there is a steam train coming down from Auckland (Ja 1275) and one coming up from P Nth (Jb 1236) for this event. It’s hard to believe that July this year I would have been with KiwiRail for 6 years, the time goes so quick. I must thank everyone for the support you have given me over this time. Being a shift worker does make it harder for me to get across to club meetings and the help and understanding I have had from members because of this has been appreciated. I enjoy my roles with SRW and look forward to continuing, that’s if you want me of course.
The Next 12 Months: This upcoming year looks like it will be another busy one for the club. We are looking at dates when we can do more Motor Trolley rides and Open Days, we are also planning some full day/weekend working bees. We will look into costings of hiring a train again for a trip somewhere also. Both Steam Inc and Feilding Steam Rail have trips planned to Wanganui later on in the year and there has been some early rumours that both the Pahiatua group and Mainline Steam are looking at coming across to next year’s Vintage Weekend. All members’ help over the next 12 months would be appreciated.
Once again I would like to thank everyone who has helped me over the past year and a big thank you to all committee members for their help.
Thank you
Blair Jordan
President SRW.