LOCOMOTIVE SOCIETY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29383, 9 December 1960, Page 27

LOCOMOTIVE SOCIETY

Revised Booklet Published

Several hundred railway enthusiasts in Christchurch would be happy to see the Government —any Government—build a new railway, provided they could ride over it and boast of some new or unusual feature. To them the "hole in the hill" to Lyttelton and a small six-wheeled locomotive, the Peveril. aged 38. are inseparable. The Canterbury branch of the Railway Locomotive Society has produced a second enlarged edition of its booklet “Steam through the Port Hills.” In it the construction of the tunnel and the local history of the railways are retraced. together with two or three new articles.

Two years ago the Peveril drew several vintage carriages filled with society members and friends to Lyttelton and back and this was the inspiration for the issue of the first edition. The second edition comes from the presses in time for the trip to Lyttelton tomorrow when the Peveril and a sister engine will steam through the tunnel to commemorate the centenary of Sir Julius von Haast’s survey of the tunnel route This survey also made history as it was the. first time that a complete section was to be cut through volcanic rock and von Haast was later able to send .unique drawings to the next Paris Exhibition.

The second edition of the booklet also includes an article on the oropoeed road tunnel by W. J. A. Brittenden. in which the future of the railways from port to plain is considered. The booklet misses one of the most important features of railway history locally—the new Christchurch station—and a photograph of the new building might have made a tailpiece for the blank back page.