MEMORIES OF HATED LOCOMOTIVE REVIVED

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27801, 28 October 1955, Page 17

MEMORIES OF HATED LOCOMOTIVE REVIVED

•‘The Pre**’ .Special Service

WELLINGTON, October 27 , hi „® arsons Liream,” the “most hellish km» g t ver pl A t - on a railwa V track," has . be , en dlsma “tled but memories [ oc pmotive whose cab was so ““*■ t u at . the fireman had to wear an asbestos sheet on his les. were revived at the reunion at Cross Creek ni™ ra .’ i ay ? lei ?. "’ ho worked on the nirnutaka Incline. _,'. p earson’s Dream" was built at the 2L d . , workshops in 1005. It “two chimneys, eight cylinders, and whec 's- Its tractive effort was about equal to that of a K.A.. O? 19O 1 ? reputed to have pulled a load on nno tons . up the Rimutaka Incline °" ° n t ? occasion. A Fell engine, which of c ™ !r . e rai1 ’ can haul a lo ad ot 65 to 70 tons. lhe •‘Dream" w;as designed by Mr. G. A. Pearson, then chief drauahts•"a" Pl V? e , R ® ilw ays Department. It “ aaid >■ L he was given a set of cylinders with instructions to I™ a loo °motive tor the Rimutaka Incline around them.

One of- the chimneys went up through the back of the locomotive’s cab. This, together with the tremendous heat from the unusual firebox made the engine extremely unpopular with drivers and firemen. One of the men at the Cross Creek reunion who could remember "Pearsons Drcam” was Mr E. J. Edlin, of Wanganui. He drove the locomotive during its dying days on the Johnsonville line.

Running the locomotive was "sheer murder,” he said. The firebox was bricked in like a marine boiler, and had to be worked on forced draught constantly. The heat from the firebox was so intense that the fireman had to wear an asbestos pad on his leg. The ‘Dream”, was taken off the incline and was used th haul trains between Upper Hutt and the Summit, and Cross Creek and Featherston. It was later transferred to the Johnsonville line and was scrapped in 1917.