In this issue:

Six carriages donated to the Trust

Six carriages have been donated to the Trust. Transport to the Maymorn site was project managed, funded and completed by 23 December 2005.

The Chairperson’s inclinations.

Maymorn progress.

Carriage fence.

Construction of Pedestrian Crossing.

Mangaroa School Rural Day.

Track work at Maymorn — 1955.

Upper Hutt Summer Carnival.

Upcoming events | Contacts | Electronic Copy

Six carriages donated to the Trust

The Trust has completed the transport of six 56-foot carriages to the Maymorn site. The carriages were progressively moved to Maymorn from 7th December, the last vehicle arriving on site two days before Christmas. Paul Vincent of Ohakune donated the carriages to the Trust, for which the Trust is extremely grateful.

A brief history of the carriages was given in the December newsletter — but to recap:

• The six vehicles comprise five 56-foot steel-clad main trunk carriages and a matching guard’s van;
• All were retired from service in the early 1990’s,
• Most were retired from Auckland Cityrail urban rail service, though the guard’s van saw Southerner / Endeavour service and latterly in a Telecom demonstration train. Carvan AL2044 came from the Christchurch — Picton passenger train.
• All were sold by Tranz Rail in February/March 1996
• They were transported by rail to Karioi, 10km east of Ohakune
• The carriages were subsequently parted from their bogies, transported and stored at Ohakune for possible chalet accommodation.
• The carriages were advertised for sale on Internet auction site Trade Me during mid-2005
• They were subsequently donated to the Trust in November 2005, once the Trust had secured funding for removal to Maymorn (from the Rimutaka Licensing Trust)

Carriage and guards van details

Original No	TMS No	Year outshopped	Where built	"Ohakune" No	Arrival date at Maymorn
A1896	A56113	1941	Otahuhu	4	20 Dec 2005
A1914	AL2044	1940	Otahuhu	5	21 Dec 2005
A1916	A56247	1939	Otahuhu	2	7 Dec 2005
A1988	A56750	1943	Addington	3	9 Dec 2005
A2000	A56868	1940	Addington	1	8 Dec 2005
F605	EA67715	1944	Otahuhu	6	23 Dec 2005

Transport from Ohakune to Maymorn

The Trust was delighted to receive a grant from the Rimutaka Licensing Trust for close to $25,000 towards the costs of relocating the carriages from Ohakune to Maymorn. The Trust would have not been able to secure the carriages without this assistance.

The Trust had to move as quickly as practicable to move the carriages, as construction of a mini-storage facility was well under way on the site. This had already complicated the move, as storage units that had already been built were blocking the exit path for guard’s van F605 (carriage 6).

Upcoming events

Sunday 7 May 2006 — Heritage Walk — Destination: Cross Creek

Mimicking the proposed third stage of the railway, we will follow the route of the railway formation from Featherston to Cross Creek (carpark) by car, stopping at points of interest on the way. Cross Creek is a 30 minute walk requring stout footwear. Bring a packed lunch, water and warm clothes!

Travel by car or morning train to meet at Featherston railway station at 10:50am. The train departs Wellington 9:55, Petone 10:08, Waterloo 10:14, Upper Hutt 10:29 and Maymorn 10:35. Return by car — we will coordinate sufficient vehicles to return train travellers to Upper Hutt.

RSVP to Hugh McCracken, email: hugh.mccracken@rimutaka-incline-railway.org.nz — to ensure that sufficient return transport to Upper Hutt can be organised.

Queen’s birthday weekend 3–5 June — FRONZ Conference

A number of the Trustees are planning to represent the Rimutaka Incline Railway at this year’s FRONZ Conference in Nelson. Hugh McCracken is presenting a session on “E-newsletters and web sites — efficiencies from multi-purposing content”

Saturday 24 June 2006, 3pm — Maymorn Barbeque

To see in the Winter Solstice, the Trust will have a mid-winter barbeque at Maymorn station. We plan to have a carriage open for inspection — and fitted out with tables and chairs to provide some accommodation (and shelter from the weather!).

This will be a good opportunity to view progress at Maymorn first hand, including the pedestrian crossing, station platform, rail vehicle shed site, security fencing and the recently acquired carriages and guards van.

The Chairperson’s inclinations

“We’ve been a little bit busy...”

Perhaps the understatement of the week! A good proportion of our effort is put in ‘behind the scenes’ and will only appear in a tangible form at some later date. I’ll run through some of the work that we have been doing, and make some predictions on likely outcomes.

Annual Plan & Subcommittees

Up to the end of the 2005 calendar year, the Trust was meeting fortnightly, working to a fairly predictable agenda, with additional items added, and others omitted, depending on relative priorities at the time. While this worked for many items, some ‘big ticket items’ identified in the Annual Plan were not receiving the attention they deserved.

As a consequence the Trust now meets every four weeks, while the following subcommittees meet during the intervening period:

• Land subcommittee: considering lease, purchase, access, stakeholder considerations;
• Maymorn site subcommittee: planning and coordinating Maymorn site development and maintenance work;
• Fundraising subcommittee: raising funds for projects identified in the Annual Plan, and as otherwise directed by the Trust;
• Safety system subcommittee: developing systems and documentation in order to secure a rail service licence.

The subcommittees report to the Trust, recommend actions, and undertake tasks as delegated. So far so good — we seem to be covering more ground, and the main Trust meeting seems to be working more efficiently and effectively.

Maymorn station building

Plans for a heritage station building at Maymorn are progressing well, with a set of elevation and layout plans received from Cochran & Murray, Conservation Architects, towards the end of March. Architectural design work, working drawings and specifications are being prepared for a fairly strict reproduction of the former Waimate station, designed by notable NZR designer, George Troup.

Alterations so far have been restricted to those required to meet current legal requirements for access and bathroom facilities. There are also some functional, as opposed to structural, changes to interior spaces. For example:

• the former Ladies Waiting Room will be available to either gender, leading to Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s facilities, and a W.C. accessible by wheelchair;
• the Lobby will be used for ticketing, rather than the old detached “hole in the wall” approach;
• a “Railways Refreshment Rooms” may well take the place of the former Tickets & Parcels.

A full set of foundation, structural and detail drawings will follow shortly — these are awaited with much anticipation.

The Trust remains indebted to the Rimutaka Licensing Trust for funding this architectural work.

Maymorn services

Nothing on the ground (or under the ground, for that matter!) to show as yet, but most of the planning and deliberation has been completed for services required at the Maymorn site, namely:

• Power
• Water
• Sewer
• Telephone.

Power and water services are required at the future rail vehicle shed site initially, and in due course at the station building site. Underground ducting has been selected to bring the services on site from Parkes Line Road, to reduce visual impact, and for practical reasons — if we are to have a trench dug to bring in a water pipe then we might as well locate the rest there as well!

Quotes are currently being sought, which will be incorporated into funding applications.

Rail vehicle shed

A modern name for what will be quite a functional building — yet designed in keeping with the traditional NZR engine shed. The title “Rail vehicle shed” is being used, as it is intended to securely house carriages as well as locomotives. Storage, maintenance and overhaul facilities are planned within the 70m x 10.5m shed.

Design and build quotes were sought for a similar shed in 2005, and these will be revisited shortly.

Station platform

Design and logistical matters have been considered and finalised for the construction of a 120 metre long station platform. The platform edge design has been developed from the CCE 11612 design of 1903 that was specified for use with the ‘Troup’ station buildings.

Quotes have been received for materials and equipment hire necessary to construct the platform edge, and a funding application made, on the basis that the Trust would project-manage and provide labour for the construction of the platform.

Track fundraising

A track fundraising scheme is being developed, with main areas to complete including promotional materials and marketing plans.

All track components can be sourced. The challenge is to obtain materials that are easily obtainable, have a low level of environmental impact, suit the heritage operation, are good for the local economy, and are available at reasonable cost while returning a low life-cycle cost. We are also mindful of security considerations associated with timber and steel sleepers, and rail in general.

It is most likely that the next lengths of track laid at the Maymorn site will be:

1. at the Maymorn station platform, funded through the track fundraising scheme;
2. at the pedestrian level crossing, to reduce future disruption to the crossing during more substantial tracklaying operations; and
3. to transfer the carriages into the rail vehicle shed.

Maymorn Progress

Carriage fence

Security fencing for the carriages is nearly complete after many days of concerted effort in straining wire and placing chain-link mesh. To improve security even further, the inside of the fence has been electrified in similar fashion to some of the Wellington region’s multiple unit enclosures. Trust member Glenn Fitzgerald has been busy ensuring that the batteries are regularly changed. Hopefully it won’t be too long before services are brought into the site, so that the fence can be powered from the mains supply. The compound requires a gate and a final run of barbed wire before it can be considered ‘finished’.

Many people have contributed towards the building of the carriage fence, both financially and through working parties. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this happen — it is invaluable in affording protection for the carriages while plans for a rail vehicle shed are finalised.

Trust member Colin Craddock has also led the way in clearing a firebreak and vehicular access track between the carriages and neighbouring scrub. A drive-around security check of the carriages is now possible.

Construction of pedestrian crossing

Following an approach from RIR to Ontrack, the exact location of the crossing was confirmed, and a safety assessment undertaken to determine the facilities required over their track. It was determined that at this stage, back-to-back PW-59 “Look for trains” signs would be necessary. These were installed by an Ontrack contractor in late February (see photo below).

The pedestrian crossing will provide the following:

• Safe passage for people passing through the RIR site to and from Tranz Metro trains at Maymorn station.
• Security for the site for the western side of the pedestrian crossing, which will be flanked by security fence and gates.
• A defined crossing point for future RIR track.

As part of the development of the crossing, Trust members are building the easternmost part of the fence that will eventually enclose the whole site.

Trust member Ian Shore has also been very busy clearing vegetation from the area where the pedestrian level crossing will cross the future Rimutaka Incline Railway mainline. As a consequence we can now finally see the true extent of land adjacent to the Tranz Metro station.

We are also grateful to Ron Scott, a Gisborne member, who has donated a light truck to the Trust. It has already been put to good use, carting loads of builders’ mix, fencing materials and track fittings.

Mangaroa School Rural Day

The Trust had a display at the Mangaroa School Rural Day on 18 March 2006. It was great to be able to present the railway project to the immediate community, talk through recent progress and plans for the future.

Track work at Maymorn — 1955

Back in 1955, Maymorn was one of two access points to the Rimutaka Deviation (the other being Speedies Crossing near Featherston). A temporary connection was built between the old line at Maymorn, which went down Old School Road, swept down across Parkes Line Road on a level crossing and then entered the station yard. Materials and supplies were delivered to the tunnel construction site, and once this was completed, track materials were also brought in.

In the background of the photo some of the Mangaroa work camp buildings can be seen, including (from left to right) a small shed housing an air compressor, project offices and workers’ houses.

Rail weighing 90-pound per yard (44.64kg/m) was used on the Rimutaka Deviation, imported from America in 39-foot (11.9 metre) lengths. It was welded into 351-foot (107 metre) lengths at the rail weld depot at Hutt Workshops, loaded onto a suitable number of flatwagons, and taken by the trainload to Maymorn. The trains required banker engines to ascend the 1 in 35 gradient uphill of Upper Hutt — various combinations of steam and diesel-electric locomotives could be seen battling up the tortuous alignment, the strings of welded rail flexing around the curves behind.

On arrival at Maymorn the rail was unloaded by teams of workmen into a rail stack, which fed a track prefabrication line. Completed sets were lifted up above a siding by a line of chain hoists which were fitted to individual gantries. A rake of flat wagons was then pushed underneath each set, and the set loaded on. The set was then propelled into the Rimutaka Tunnel, where it was unloaded using a combination of travelling gantry cranes running on kerb rails. The wagons were withdrawn, the set lowered, and then pulled into position with a tractor.

As a matter of interest, the carriages and guard’s van delivered to Maymorn in December 2005 are currently stored in the same location that the photograph was taken.

Upper Hutt Carnival

The Trust also recently attend the Upper Hutt Carnival at Trentham Memorial Park on 25 February 2006. It was a chance not only to discuss the project but also to educate the public on the significance of the Rimutaka Incline.

Contacts

Full contact details may be had on the Trust’s website at www.rimutaka-incline-railway.org.nz/contacts.html

Electronic copy

An electronic copy of this newsletter will be available on the Trust’s website at www.rimutaka-incline-railway.org.nz/member-pages/newsletter-15.html from 15 April 2006. Further copies can be printed, or images viewed in colour (where applicable).