The Cradle of New Zealand Railways

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22243, 6 November 1937, Page 21

The Cradle of New Zealand Railways

Mr Fowke is a nonagenarian, and, with none of his faculties seriously impaired, he is a remarkably active man for his age. Invested with a keen sense of humour, he is a most interesting personality, and his fund of reminiscences about the pioneering days of railways is of historical importance. In a recent interview with a representative of “The Press,” Mr Fowke dipped into the past and related some interesting facts which form the basis of this article. , Moreover, much of this story was verified by another veteran of the service, Mr John Henry Newton, of Belfast, who was associated with Mr Fowke in the late sixties as one of the staff employed on the Lyttelton station. To-day Mr Newton is to be seen any day digging in his vegetable garden or taking his daily constitutional in the shape of a two-mile walk. He is in his eighty-sixth year. , Ninety Years Ago . Born in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, Mr Fowke went to sea as a lad,* but after six years under sail he decided to try his luck in New Zealand, landing in Lyttelton in the early sixties. His first job was on the West Coast road 100 miles out from Christchurch. The wages, 11s a day, were very good for those times, but the hardships and general living conditions were indescribable —Mr Fowke found them worse than those inflicted on him as cabin boy under a very choleric captain on-a little Welsh hooker, and so before very long he made his weary pilgrimage on foot back to Lyttelton, fording innumerable rivers and streams en route. In Lyttelton he was offered a job on a brig called The Fawn at £2 10s a month, but while he was turning this offer : over in his mind Holmes and Company, who had just built the original railway line from Christchurch to Ferrymead, engaged him as a member of their tiny staff of railway workers. He was immediately assigned to the small, box-like structure at Ferrymead, which functioned

as the terminal station of the few miles of track constituting the whole of the young colony’s railway service. The site of this pioneer station can still be seen to-day, to the right of the bridge over the Heathcote river on Ferry road. A portion of the original embankment which carried the first rails has also survived the ravages of 74 years.

The Old Broad Gauge It was a broad-gauge line, sft Sin in width, that ran from Christchurch to Ferrymead. The gauge was, said Mr Fowke, determined by sheer necessity rather than by expert opinion. Holmes and Company, the contractors for the excavation of the Lyttelton tunnel, came from Victoria with a shipment of construction gear, in which was included a locomotive dr two and a string of waggons, all built to a sft Sin gauge. The gear was landed from a sailing vessel at Ferrymead, arid as some of the rolling stock was required for the Christchurch to Ferrymead line —a venture subsequently embarked upon—the broad-gauge railway was accepted without question, and for some of the other New Zealand lines as well, including the Lyttelton section.

In backing up Mr Fowke’s version, Mr E. S. Brittenden, District Traffic Manager at Christchurch, a keen student of railway history, told a representative of “The Press” that when the New Zealand railways system was converted to the narrow gauge, the whole of the old rolling stock was sold to the South Australian Government, which operated its railways on the sft 3in gauge. Some of the rolling stock was shipped from Lyttelton on the Hyderabad. The Hyderabad sailed for Adelaide, only to be driven ashore between Foxtoh and Otaki on the night of June 24, 1878. She became a total loss, but the old railway engines which comprised a portion of her cargo were salvaged and eventually reached Adelaide little the worse for the wreck. They ran continuously on the South Australian railways until 1926, when, after more than 60 years’ service, they met an ignominious end, being sold to Japan as scrap metal. These were the original locomotives in use on the New Zealand railways, and had a great reputation in Adelaide, where they were known colloquially as the “Maori engines,” as their siderods were pitted through their exposure to salt water in the wreck with markings which were likened to a tattoo on a native’s face.

The Pioneers

As recently as 1927, the South Australian Government still had some of the old New Zealand rolling stock in use, and the original upholstery of some of the first-class carriages, which was excellent quality, had stood the test of nearly half a century’s wear and tear—a tribute to old-time workmanship.

To-day only one of the original broad-gauge passenger cars survives

in New Zealand. Perhaps it should be in the Canterbury Museum as a companion for the old stage coach which graces the institution, but it is located at Rangiora, where it serves the humble purpose of a tool house for the railway ganger. The original carriages which ran on the old broad-gauge railways in New Zealand had side doors opening directly on to the platform. When the change-over was made to the narrow-gauge system some of them were converted to the narrow-gauge track, with doors opening at the ends, but none of the waggons was

adapted to the changed width, all being sold for export. “The railway service ' was all George Holmes and Company in those days,” said Mr Fowke. “They were the whole works. The New Zealand Railway Department had yet to be born. Even when the Christchurch to Lyttelton line commenced operations in December, 1867, Holmes and Company were still on the box seat. Mr Fitzmorns, who had been the company’s stationmaster at Ferrymead, took charge of the station at Lyttelton, with Mr G. Walker as booking clerk, Mr W. Haslock as shunter, and myself as platform porter. Mr Dick Knuckey was also on the staff, for he drove the old steam crane at the jetty. And so the company carried on for about six months, during which there were innumerable squabbles with the Provincial Government of Canterbury, who were itching to take over the line, but would not do so until the construction work had been entirely completed.

In 1888 “It was well into 1868 when the Lyttelton line was formally declared to be completed and the Provincial Government proceeded to make its first appointments to the staff at Lyttelton station. The first stationmaster appointed was Mr William Packard, who was another of the real pioneer railwaymen of New Zealand, having worked on the old Ferrymead line as chief clerk in the goods shed at Christchurch, for Holmes and Company. Mr Packard,

Lyttelton in the Romantic Sixties

by the way, was one of the earliest residents of Lyttelton/ having arrived there with his parents, Mr and Mrs William Packard, in 1851. He grew up to manhood at the port, being educated in the old private school at Governor’s Bay. He died somewhere in the North Island more than 40 years ago. “Possibly I have forgotten a name or two, but to the best of my recollection Mr Packard’s first staff at Lyttelton comprised Mr W. Haslow, Mr J. Currie, Mr J. Stewart—he was the signalman at the tunnel—Mr Steve Tredennick—the pointsman —and myself. Mr T, Bradley was the chief clerk on Peacock’s wharf. There were also a couple of crane drivers and a few casual hands employed on the wharves. A year or two after we started going, my old friend John Newton joined the staff as a youth, and a very handy boy he was. We were a very small but happy family. The service was doubtless pretty crude—we had none of your modern appointments in the shape of telephones, fancy signalling systems and the like—but everybody pulled their weight, and by means of the old Winter Block system of train control in the tunnel, we managed to keep the trains running without any mishap.

A Doughty Crew “The line to Lyttelton, of course, was sft Sin gauge. If you look at the tunnel to-day you will notice that it is built to carry a broad gauge railway. We had no 40-hour week in those days. We worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week, with no payment for overtime, and the wage in my case was 6s a day. But that was not all. Mr Packard was an enthusiastic oarsman and one of his first acts on taking charge was to organise the ‘Railway Four,’ of which he himself was stroke, I was bow. Bill Lane No. 2, and George Gaynor No. 3. I just forget the name of the coxswain, but I think it was Harry Parsons. Well, in the rowing season, Mr Packard hauled us out of our beds every fine morning long before 6 o’clock for a practice row in the ‘Snowdrop,’ an old outrigger, with enormous sweeps, and she seemed to weigh a ton. Approaching a regatta or a race for ‘a fiver a side’ with the crew of some ship in port, we also had to go through the same performance after we finished our day’s work at 6 o’clock in the evening. Indeed, it is a question which came first in those dear old days, the railway time-table or the exploits of the old Snowdrop.

“I well remember one New Year’s Day regatta—in the sixties and seventies one of the principal social events of the year in Canterbury. The champion crew of the big fleet of sailing ships which happened at that time to be in the the port issued an open challenge to all comers—landlubbers preferred. Well, the railway crew had what was generally considered the effrontery to accept that challenge. Lots of money changed hands at the old Mitre Hotel, most of it being on the crew of sailors. Well, we rowed the race and beat the challengers, only to be disqualified because we did not carry a little distinguishing flag at our bow. After a brief adjournment to the Mitre we challenged them to another race. This we also lost because, in pulling away from the sailors, one of our crew caught a crab.

First Guard on South Express

“Mr Packard issued a challenge for a third race over the same course. The sailors wanted to call it a day. but when we offered to row for a stake of £lO, they lost no time in

A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

The New Zealand railways system has its roots in Canterbury. Christchurch was the scene of the first stretch of track, the home of the Dominion’s pioneer railway men. The Dominion’s first locomotive pulled out of the Christchurch yards on December 4, 1863—and a decade was to pass before the first mile of railway was operated in the North Island. All this took place 74 years ago, yet to-day there is still living in the city a member of the original staff of workers who helped to grease the axle wheels of New Zealand’s pioneer trains. This man is Mr Tom Fowke, of Bealey avenue.

section of the railways was opened in 1872. Mr Fowke also had the honour of being guard on the first train to run from Christchurch to Dunedin. “The train bumped and swayed at an alarming manner in those days,” said Mr Fowke. “I invariably arrived in Dunedin with a stitch on one side, and with the certainty of getting another one on the

other side on the run home to Christchurch, but we made great time. As a matter of fact we used to leave Christchurch at 8.40 a.m. and arrive at Dunedin at 5.25 p.m. the same day, and that was over 60 years ago.” Mr Fowke recalls that besides the lines to Ferrymead and Lyttelton a number of the other pioneer stretches of railway in the South Island were of broad-gauge dimensions, The first line from Christ-

greasing their rowlocks. So the race was held and this time we romped home to victory. We won the race in a waterman’s boat called ‘Just in Time,’ and, man, weren’t those sweeps heavy by the time it came to the third race.” Mr Fowke was promoted to guard in the early seventies, and he took the first train to Rangiora when that

The late Mr William Packard, a pioneer railwayman, who was associated with the first few miles of railway line (between Christchurch and Ferrymead) operated in New Zealand, and first stationmaster at Lyttelton when the Port line was handed over by the contractors to the old Provincial Government.

church to Rakaia was sft 3in in width, but the narrow gauge ran right through on the opening of the Christchurch to Dunedin section.

Early Lyttelton Days To-day, one of Mr Fowke’s most cherished possessions is a solid silver watch presented to him by fellowrailwaymen upon his retirement in September, 1906, after completing 41 years in the service of the New Zealand railways. On the same occasion he was presented with a miniature of a horse, fashioned in solid gold, by the commercial community of Christchurch. “It is many years ago since I resigned from the railway service,” said Mr Newton, “but I still retain a lively recollection of the tiny staff, which under Mr Packard’s supervision ran Lyttelton station in the pioneer days. There was of course no Harbour Board in those days—not until January, 1877, did the first board start to function. Before that red letter day we men on the railways simply got along the best way we could. For all practical purposes we were the Harbour Board, and Mr Packard was the harbourmaster. Fortunately there were not many trains, and, when Mr Packard was busy with the shipping, Tom Fowke ran the station. Anyhow, we never had a single smash on the line, so far as I can remember, and I suppose that is what counted most with the ‘heads’ in those days, as it still does to-day. And I might say that I would be just as proud to-day to belong to the railways as I was in the seventies, because, in my opinion, the successors of us old-timers still carry on the old traditions of loyalty and service, and have every reason to be> proud of their record.”

Philosophy of a Veteran Mr Newton was a pioneer official at the opening of several stations, acting in the capacity of porter-in-charge at several flag stations. Later he was promoted to the grade of stationmaster. In 1877 he was transferred to Belfast as stationmaster, succeeding Mr W. W. Webb, who had previously carried on as porter-in-charge, but when in 1879 Mean and Watts’ boiling down works at Belfast were destroyed by fire—there was no freezing works in those days —the tiny station was closed down because of lack of business. Mr Newton was sent to Balcairn, and later he served at various other stations. In 1882 the first freezing works in Canterbury was opened at Belfast by the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company. This had the effect of again putting Belfast on the railway map, and Mr Newton was sent there in charge, remaining there as stationmaster for 12 years. A year later he retired from the service and went into business at Belfast, where he has been living in retirement for many years. An enthusiastic angler, Mr Newton still plys a rod in trout streams and recently he was presented with a complimentary licence by the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society to mark his record of 50 years as a licensed fisherman. Mr Newton still enjoys life because, as he explains, “the passage of years has taught me to be tolerant of my fellow-men, to enjoy life to the full within the limitations that old age imposes. As far back, too, as I can remember I have always taken ray daily constitutional walk —I still smoke a smelly briar, and enjoy a glass or two with my friends. What mpre can a man ask?”