In this issue:

Resource Consent.

The Chairperson’s inclinations.

Sponsor a length of track.

Want to see some track at Maymorn? Here's your opportunity to help us get started.

Wagons Roll!.

Pakuratahi deviation investigation with MWH.

Maymorn progress:

- Construction of Pedestrian Crossing.

- New Zealand Community Trust grant for fence.

Summit tree planting.

Upcoming events | Contacts | Electronic Copy

Resource Consent

If we have seemed a little quiet lately it is due to work happening behind the scenes on a Resource Consent application and accompanying Assessment of Environmental Effects. A successful application is needed in order to progress work on the proposed Rail Vehicle shed.

The Trust requires a Rail Vehicle shed in order to provide a secure base for its operations and to provide a centre for its restoration and storage of the heritage rail vehicles. Other rail vehicle owners have also indicated that secure premises would need to be in place before they would contemplate locating heritage railway equipment at the site.

A host of information has been prepared for the application including:

• a full set of plans for the rail vehicle shed
• outline drawings of other proposed structures including a:
  • station building,
  • water vat,
  • semaphore signals and
  • signal box
• description of rail related activities proposed at the site
• landscaping, lighting and car parking plans
• services plans
• stormwater plans
• a geotechnical report, earthworks plan and specification
• noise management plan.

Methods by which environmental effects can be avoided, remedied or mitigated have been included, as required by the Resource Management Act 1991.

The Trust has also been consulting with some of the potentially affected parties located in the immediate vicinity prior to lodging the application with Council. A small number of changes and inclusions have been made as a result of the consultation, mainly related to screening and landscaping.

We anticipate that the application will be fully notified, and expect to know the results by late Autumn.

The Chairperson’s inclinations

Resource Consent

As mentioned in the lead story, a huge amount of work has gone into resource consent application and associated assessment of environmental effects. Consultation with potentially affected parties is time-consuming — but it is important to involve the community at the early planning stages of any large project. As this newsletter goes ‘goes to press’ we anticipate that the resource consent application will be a matter of days from being lodged with Upper Hutt City Council, and that it will be fully notified. A decision should be had by late Autumn.

Rail vehicle shed in brief

Design work is being finalised, and the plans are currently with engineers for validation. The final length of shed, and extent of involvement of contractors is pending a decision in March on a funding application submitted to the Lotteries Grants Board Environment and Heritage Committee.

Sponsor a length of track

The ‘Sponsor a length of track’ campaign is underway, with a number of people taking the opportunity to have a permanent record of their support in our ‘permanent way’.

Good progress has been made, with four packs of sleepers, 96 in total, delivered from Stresscrete’s Hamilton concrete sleeper batching plant to Wellington in December. On 9 December the first sponsored sleeper was installed in the Maymorn yard, as seen in the accompanying image.

Elsewhere in this newsletter, and on our web site, you will find details on the sponsorship options, which give opportunities at entry, medium and high ends of the range. Automatic payment options are also available, which we hope will bring the sponsorship packages within reach of most people.

Maymorn project

Work programme for Autumn will include:

• Continued construction of security fencing along Ontrack boundary using materials purchased with a grant from the New Zealand Community Trust
• Completion of the pedestrian crossing facility through to the Ontrack station
• Construction of track between future rail vehicle shed and station building sites, which will be used to store ballast wagons in the short term
• Alternative road vehicle access to the shed site
• Pending resource consent and building consent, a start may be made on foundations for the rail vehicle shed.

Sponsor a length of track!

Help us to make tracks! The Trust invites you to sponsor a length of track. An opportunity to have a permanent record of your support for the Rimutaka Incline Railway. Plain track will be laid with either concrete or timber sleepers, depending on quality and availability considerations. An initial supply of suitable concrete sleepers has been sourced for initial track requirements at Maymorn.

As a sponsor you will receive a certificate recognising your contribution to the Rimutaka Incline Railway. Details that identify your sleeper will be included, along with the plan type.

You will also be able to find the exact location of the sponsored length of track, and view a photo of the track in its surroundings by using the new virtual track locator feature on our web site.

There are 3 levels of sponsorship: Bronze, Silver and Gold. To participate in this fundraising opportunity, check out the Trust’s web page: Sponsor a length of track! Or, if you are receiving a print copy of this newsletter a brochure will have been enclosed.

Current track requirements are for future mainline, loop and siding tracks at Maymorn, 6km northeast of Upper Hutt. A number of buildings and structures require railway track to function, including the planned station building, platform, rail vehicle shed, water tanks and turntable.

Your contribution through sponsoring a length of track will make a difference!

Track Gallery

Ballast wagons

As outlined in our previous two newsletters, Ontrack have been most generous in making surplus wagons available at scrap rates, which means that a 7–tonne ‘Yc’ or ‘Yf’ wagon will cost approximately $2,000 including transport to the Maymorn site. We figure that a train of wagons will be required to relay an 18km railway, rather than just a handful — and this is the opportunity to secure what is needed for the future.

As at 21 February 2007, 26 of the 40 new “YJ” bogie ballast wagons had been released to traffic from Hillside Workshops, including:

• 10 at Morrinsville
• 12 at Picton
• 4 at Invercargill

Now there is a rake of new wagons in the North Island it is likely that a start will be made on decommissioning the old “4-wheelers”.

The Trust needs your help to secure a dozen ballast wagons — opportunity to purchase the decommissioned wagons is approaching fast. Sponsorship of individual wagons would be a most welcome gesture and we would happily entertain naming rights, logos or other signs put on wagons to acknowledge your support. Please contact the Trust if you can help sponsor a wagon: enquiries@rimutaka-incline-railway.org.nz or telephone 021 701 551 — we would be glad to hear from you.

Pakuratahi deviation investigation with MWH

On 26 October 2006 Trust Chairperson Hugh McCracken accompanied MWH Global consulting engineers and a Greater Wellington Regional Council officer on a half-day exploratory trip up the Pakuratahi valley. A high dam at Ladle Bend on the Pakuratahi River is one of three sites being evaluated to cater for Wellington’s future water requirements, the others being Skull Gully, in the Orongorongo catchment, Wainuiomata, and the Whakatiki site, Belmont Regional Park.

The Trust has acknowledged the necessity to provide for future water requirements of the region, this being the prime reason for Greater Wellington Regional Council holding the land in the Pakuratahi Forest Park. We have expressed opposition to locating the dam at Ladle Bend, as it would inundate approximately 1.5km of railway formation, and necessitate removal of the historically important Ladle Bend railway bridge. However, the Trust has suggested an alternative to the Ladle Bend location, being immediately upstream of the Summit Stream confluence. This location is being examined as a potential candidate.

Implications for the Trust of the Ladle Bend reservoir site have been considered further, to determine firstly whether a deviation route is feasible, and secondly, to determine likely order of magnitude of cost. The excursion on 26 October explored a possible route that would deviate from the heritage railway formation approximately 2km downstream of the Pakuratahi Tunnel, climb at a gradient no greater than 1 in 40 with minimum 100-metre radius curvature to crest above the dam site, skirt above the shore of the reservoir, finally crossing the head of the reservoir to rejoin the heritage formation approximately 2km from Summit.

Whilst this would be an enormous undertaking for the Trust (more than $15M at commercial rates), and not its first preference, the deviation would be of similar character to other portions of the route. It would, unfortunately, result in loss or deviation away from key heritage railway structures, including the Pakuratahi Tunnel, Pakuratahi Truss bridge and Ladle Bend bridge and 4km of formation that passes through a particularly scenic gorge.

Maymorn Progress

Summit tree planting

Sunday 29 October 2006 saw a dedicated number travel to Summit to plant trees and tend to those planted in previous years. The planting session had been postponed a couple of times due to inclement weather, and the weather that day could have been a little better! However, the planting could not be put off any longer as Summer was fast approaching, and a little rain would be good for the trees.

The previous plantings are starting to show good results. Many of the larger flax bushes and other trees are probably going to have some flowers next year, which should improve the bird life there in time.

In 2007 Maymorn will probably have a planting day, first steps of our landscaping work for the site.

Upcoming events

Members’ evening: Ballast wagons — Wednesday 18 April 2007, 7:30pm.

The decommissioning of old ballast wagons from mainline service this year marks the end of an era for 4-wheel wagons. A chance to look back at 4-wheel wagons, their successors and our plans to purchase up to 12 wagons for the Rimutaka Incline Railway.

Meet at Level 1 Meeting Room, Upper Hutt City Council, 838–842 Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt. Access is from the car park to rear of the Council building, 100m east of H₂OExtreme. Light refreshments will be provided.

Looking back…

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-18.html from 18 March 2007. Further copies can be printed, or images viewed in colour (where applicable).