Tuesday, April 3, 2018
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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY
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“It’s beautiful,” says Pat Healey as he sees the locomotive he used to ride on as a child restored to its full glory.
Steam express back on the rails
PHOTO ROBYN HOOD 310318-RH-037
BY SUSAN SANDYS
SUSAN.S@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Loving life in AshburtonP2
After being under maintenance for five years, JA 1260 steamed her way into the hearts of Plains Railway visitors at the weekend. Among those overjoyed to see the spectacle of the largest coal-fired operating steam locomotive in the South Island making its debut was Pat Healey. It was the first time since he was a child he was able to get on board the locomotive, which his late father Frank Healey had driven for New Zealand Railways on the return Invercargill-to-Dunedin Express in the 1950s. “She’s a beautiful engine. When we were kids we used to hop up on the fence and watch it go past, the blowing of the whistle; in those days steam was a big thing and railways were very, very busy,” Healey said. “The Plains Railway have kept it origi-
nal. I take my hat off to them. The way it is, it will be good for another 100 years,” he said. Healey was among about 800 riding the trains at Plains Railway’s steamfest at the weekend, and he had travelled from his home in Temuka to be there. Plains Railway shop manager Lorayne Oakley said the group generally staged its steamfests on long weekends, and this had been the biggest for many years. Having steam engines running had been the drawcard, with the JA 1260 operating alongside the smaller K88 on Sunday. On the Saturday the JA 1260 operated alongside the railway’s diesel rail car. Railway volunteers were looking forward to holding open days with the machine in future, and expected more bookings for groups, schools and events. The JA 1260 has undergone about $12,000 of maintenance work over the
Don’t get
past five years at Plains Railway. It is a relic from decades gone by, having hauled its last passenger carriages in 1971, from Christchurch to Oamaru as a night express. Plains Railway bought it from the government railways’ organisation in 1972, and it underwent a major restoration from the 1980s to the 2000s. Plains Railway then had to return it for maintenance in 2013, after a few more problems were discovered. Among those leading the restoration was Bryce Chisnall, who is a driver and also a fireman responsible for the “hot and dirty” job of loading the engine fire with coal. Chisnall said it had been “astonishing” to see so many people turn out at the weekend, and rewarding after the challenging process of getting the JA 1260 back on track. “It was a great relief to get it back working,” he said.
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