Reefton to keep ‘last locomotive’

Press, 17 November 1981, Page 29

Reefton to keep ‘last locomotive’

Greymouth reporter

Reefton’s 1878 Single Fairlie locomotive, the last of its kind in th'e world, is not going to Ferrymead. It will stay in the town, where it worked for many years. The Inangahua County Council, which intended to give it to Ferrymead, has given into the pleas of a small band of Reefton people who want to keep it.

“We have formed a small committee, and we are raising money to paint it and care for it,” said the committee’s secretary, Mrs Patricia Collard.

The Inangahua County

Clerk (Mr A. H. Rogers) said that the council had laid down certain conditions for the transfer of the engine to the committee. These included that it be removed from the children’s playground where it was sited, that immediate restoration work be started, that a programme for its continuing restoration and maintenance be submitted, and that it be roofed.over to provide further protection.

Once restoration work was under way, it would be slightly dangerous for children playing on it, as it was surrounded by a concrete pad.

Mrs Collard said that her committee had decided to steam-clean the engine and paint it immediately before deciding on its new site.

“It should • have been painted a year ago, but this was not possible with the delays in obtaining permission to'keep it in the town, and with the poor weather lately,” she said.

“A lot of people -probably do not know that Reefton exists. If this engine was anywhere else, people would flock to see it. It is part of the history of Reefton, and that is why we want to keep it and look after it.”