SOUTHLAND RAILWAYS

Southland Times, Issue 20225, 9 July 1927, Page 5

SOUTHLAND RAILWAYS

Early History Old Drivers Interviewed Interesting Reminiscences A few weeks ago fourteen old railway engines were interred in the Oreti river for the purpose of protecting an embankment from erosion. As they were raised up by the steam crane and tumbled over the bank into the riverbed there was nothing majestic about these massive iron structures. Shorn of all their glory they resembled unsightly skeletons of last century. Yet fifty years ago these engines were the pride of the road and there are many retired drivers who have a very soft place in their hearts for those of their favourites who now lie on the stony bed of the Oreti.

OLD DRIVERS. Living in Invercargill are several drivers who were in charge of engines running between Invercargill and Christchurch or running on branch lines in Southland nearly half a century ago; and in the course of conversations with a Times’ reporter recently some of these had many .interesting reminiscences to recount of the early days of the province’s railways. MR JOHN BRASS’S STORY. There can be few, if any, in Southland who have a more vivid recollection of early railway history than Mr John Brass, a retired driver who now resides in Yarrow street. Though Mr Brass is approaching his eightieth year and although he and his good wife have celebrated their golden wedding, the reporter felt that he might well have been conversing with a man who had retired only a few years ago, until Mr Brass began to speak of happenings as far back as 1863. Then the newspaper man realised that he was speaking to one of the genuine pioneers of the province. WOODEN RAILS. In his reminiscences Mr Brass relied entirely on his memory, not having kept a diary, so that, as he admitted, while the incidents he relates are substantially correct, he may err occasionally as to dates. One of the first attempts to open up rail communication in Southland was made between Invercargill and Winton. In the early ’sixties a contract was let to a Mr Davies to lay wooden rails between Invercargill and Winton, the intention being to extend the line to Kingston as early as possible. The contractor had workshops near where Macalister’s foundry was later erected, and carriages and waggons were made there. The rails were 8 inches square, and notched into sleepers made of logs of about two feet sawn in two. THE LADY BARKLY. The first locomotive used in Southland was imported from Melbourne, and was named the Lady Barkly, after the wife of the then Governor of Victoria. It was a four-wheeled coupled engine and its first service was to assist the contractors who were making the road across the bog from Greenhills to Awarua. The chief work of the Lady Barkly, however, was to do the ballasting for the wooden railway between Invercargill and Winton. After a very useful life she was sold to a man named Murdoch, who had a sawmill in the district that came to be called after this famous old engine. Her boiler is still to be seen lying among stumps at Lady Barkly. OPENING OF WOODEN RAILWAY. Late in 1864 or early in 1865 the wooden railway was finished as far as the level crossing on the north side of the Makarewa railway station. Great preparations were made to celebrate such amimportant event as the opening of this railway. A huge crowd boarded the train at Invercargill, for they were good Scots and the ride was free. At Makarewa a public banquet with a bullock roasted in real Maori style had been arranged, while a full athletic and aquatic sports’ programme had been drawn up. Every available truck and ballast waggon was used for the conveyance of the excited passengers.

But Fate proved unkind. When the engine was coming back on the second trip it could not ascend the rise at Buxton’s on account of rain having made the rails wet. It commenced to slip badly and finally it stopped altogether. A great many people had to walk back to town in the rain. Others of a more convivial nature stayed the night and enjoyed a banquet. Mr Brass remembers how daintily-dressed women were subjected to a constant barrage of sparks from the engine, which burnt only wood. Quite a number of hats, coats and umbrellas were set on fire by the sparks. But they were giants in those days, for little things like that did not worry them. CONTRACT CANCELLED. The engines for this wooden railway were imported from Victoria. They were about the size of the J class engine and were four-wheeled coupled. The coupled wheels were about eight inches wide, stood flat on the rail and had an extra pair of smaller wheels in front and rear resembling the sheaves of a chain block. These ran square on the edge of the rail and took the place of the flange generally used. The only engine fitted up and used was that concerned in the Makarewa mishap. After that failure had occurred the Government cancelled the contract, paying £60,000 to Mr Davies in compensation. Besides having laid the wooden rails to Makarewa, the contractor had finished most of the formation and bridging as far as Winton. THE BLUFF LINE. While the wooden railway was being completed, work had been commenced on the Invercargill-Bluff line. The first sod of this section was turned in November, 1863, and it was opened for traffic on February 5, 1867. Mr. Brass commenced his railway service in New Zealand as a ganger on this section, and subsequently worked as ganger for the contractor on the Winton line and other sections which will be referred to later. THE MOKOMOKO. When the line south from Invercargill was first mooted it was intended to take it to Greenhills and then run a branch to the Mokomoko, where in the early days it was to the Mokomoko rather than to Bluff that shipping came. A jetty costing many thousands of pounds was actually built at the Mokomoko, where Mr. Brass says he can remember six or seven accommodation houses and numerous stores. The first contract for the line ended about where the level crossing now exists between Greenhills and Awarua. Rails were laid across from there to the Mokomoko, and although they have since been lifted, traces of the railway still remain. To cross the •bog fascines had to be thrown down and strong beams of wood laid over them before rails could be laid. THE STANDARD GAUGE. The Bluff line was of standard gauge that is 4 feet 84 inches wide. This gauge is frequently referred to in New Zealand as the wide gauge, but this is erroneous for the wide gauge is 5 feet 3 inches. Three engines were imported for work on the Bluff

line. Two of these were tank engines of the size of the F class and were fourwheeled coupled. The other had six wheels, the back four being coupled. Towards the end of 1875 the gauge was altered to the narrow or present gauge. All the broad gauge engines available and a large number of platelayers sent down specially from Dunedin were busily employed altering the gauge and were so efficient that the work was carried out in one day. A GREAT STORM. When the Bluff line was first made it followed a different course after leaving Clyde Street siding from that which it now follows. Mr. Dalrymple who owned the land where the railway now runs would not part with it at a price that the Government considered reasonable. Consequently an embankment was erected from Clyde Street to Kew. When Mr. Brass was working on the Bluff line the great storm of 1868 occurred and washed away this great and expensive embankment. The pioneer driver remembers helping to jack up one of the broad gauge engines at the jetty crossing on to a plank and light iron rails. With pinch-bars the engine was slowly propelled length by length to Clyde Street and then to Kew. The timber in the embankment cost about £20,000 and after the storm was sold for £2O. About 1875 Mr. W. Conyers, who had come out from England as an engineer to the New Zealand Railways and who was appointed not long after his arrival Commissioner of Railways for the South Island, ordered four narrow gauge engines from Home. Some admirer of Byron named them respectively the Corsair, Manfred, Mazeppa and Werner. Mr. Brass was firing on one of these engines the day the gauge was altered. The broad gauge engine had gone on ahead with the platelayers. These four Byronic engines were very heavy and were used on the Bluff and Winton lines, not being suitable for use in the construction work of the Mataura-Gore line. None of these historic engines were deposited in the Oreti River. Until recently they were in service in the Canterbury Section. SHIPWRECKED ENGINES. When the gauge was altered from standard to narrow the standard gauge engines and plant were sold to the Victorian Government. They were not destined, however, to cross the Tasman Sea without incident. The engines yere loaded on to the steel barque Hyderabad in September 1877, and had beaten through Cook Strait when a severe westerly storm struck the vessel, which unable to clear the land was driven up past Kapiti Island and early in the morning ran ashore opposite where the town of Levin now stands in the Manawatu district. For several months attempts to refloat the Hyderabad were made, but unsuccessfully, and owing to the heavy nature of the cargo, little hope was felt of salvaging it. A Captain Bow, however, a retired shipmaster resident in Foxton undertook the task. The Hyderabad was wedged firmly into the sand close in shore, and heavy tackle was rigged from one of the masts to the shore. The engines themselves were too heavy to shift but the whole of the wheels, etc., of engines and trucks were run down the tackle and hauled by bullocks up the hard sand to Foxton, whence they were sent on their interrupted journey to Melbourne. FATAL ACCIDENT.

Mr. Brass was a witness of the first fatal accident that occurred on the Southland railways. On October 31, 1864 ballasting was going on near Wallacetown and a man named Gasket was sitting on the end of a waggon when the engine started and caused him to overbalance. He fell on the line and was cut to pieces by the wheels passing over him. The death of young Gasket was all the more tragic in that he and his father were greatly attached to each other and lived together in a neat little hut in the bush. His son’s death caused the father to drift away north with all interest in life departed. The engine concerned in this accident was the old Lady Barkly. THE J 61. Mr. Brass had an exciting experience with an engine of the J class, which caused his retirement after thirty-six years’ service. After he had worked on the Bluff and Winton lines as ganger, he worked in the same capacity with a contractor named Broyden and helped to lay the rails on the Mataura line from the ballast pit where the goodsheds now are to a point twelve chains on. The contract for laying the rails was then sub-let to Murray, Miller and Co, with whom Mr. Brass carried on. In 1873, however, his ambitions were realised, for he was employed on the locomotive section. Six months before his time was up Mr. Brass was driving the J 61 when at Winton near where the racecourse now is a bull appeared on the line and was run into by the train. In those days there was a brake only on the engine, so that pulling up was not so easily accomplished as it is now. The collision threw the engine off the rails and landed it bottom up in a ditch. Mr. Brass was fairly badly hurt, and was under medical treatment for three months. He then had only three months to go for superannuation, and the Government granted him leave of absence for the remainder of the period. The J 61 which was lying in such an undignified position in the ditch at Winton is one of those now lying wheels up in the Oreti River. MR. W. CONYERS. Mention has already been made of Mr. W. Conyers, Commissioner for the South Island. He was unfortunate enough to sustain severe head injuries during the opening run from Dunedin to Invercargill in 1879. Mr. Conyers was riding on the leading engine, and when nearing East Gore he leaned out to look back at the rear of the train. Part of a tank which projected too near the line struck him on the head and rendered him unconscious. He had to remain at Gore for several days in a critical condition, and although he made a good recovery, he was never the same man after the accident. “THE RAT.” An engine that did a great deal of work on the Invercargill-Gore line and later on the Bluff line was known to drivers as The Rat. There were really twin brother Rats, but only one was known in Southland. These two engines had been ordered from Home to work on the Mataura line. Pending their arrival an F class engine had been sent down from Dunedin. When th®

Rats arrived on the steamer at Dunedin, the authorities there were shrewd enough to keep one of these new engines and make Invercargill put up with the F engine instead. However, one Rat was sent down and won golden opinions. After serving on the Mataura line this engine did shunting at Bluff and on the days she was indisposed a smaller engine known as The Mouse carried on the work. THE ENGINES INTERRED. No doubt old drivers will be interested to learn which engines were sent over the bank into the Oreti. Besides the J6l already mentioned, there were four engines of the K class interred, the K 88, 94, 95 and 97, two of the P class, P 60 and 133, and seven of the V class, V 35, 63, 114, 125, 128, 129 and 136. While few of these were concerned in any serious accidents—the New Zealand Railways have fortunately been almost immune from such happenings—many of them had wonderful records and were held in affectionate regard by their devoted drivers. THE K CLASS. One of the early drivers in Otago who now resides in Invercargill had much to tell the reporter concerning the American engines classed as K. They were exhibited for the first time in the Great Philadelphia Exhibition in 1877 and were built by Rogers, Paterson, New Jersey. The New Zealand Government ordered a number of these fast engines and used them for the express services. K 92 was the pride of the old Otago driver and he was delighted that his old favourite had not been put in the Oreti. Forty-three years ago he was firing on this engine, when she was the pride of the road. It was one of the engines of this class that ran the first passenger train between Dunedin and Invercargill when Mr Conyers was so seriously injured. Of the four K engines now in the Oreti one was stationed at Christchurch, one at Oamaru, one at Dunedin and one at Invercargill. Pet names given to two of them were the Washington and the Lincoln. Mr Brass was also familiar with these engines and remembered on one occasion when a K engine had broken the equalie ing bar he was put on to run the express from Invercargill with the FB, the next biggest engine available. The time for the journey was six and a half hours and Mr Brass got there in time, though the wooden blocks of the engine brake—the only brake on the train in those days—almost caught fire once. THE P CLASS. “I’m afraid one of my old pets, the P 135, went over the bank,” remarked the exOtago man. Then he added enthusiastically “Oh, but she was a great engine, that!” No doubt when he sees that though two of the P class are in the Oreti, his pet is still on earth he will feel happier. THE V CLASS. These were English engines imported some seven years after the K class, and were also used in the express sendees. V 127, not one of those dumped, was driven by the Otago man on the evening of the big accident at Rakaia when the second of the two excursion trains from the Islington Freezing Works to Ashburton ran into the first. A number were killed and many injured. Two V engines were involved in the Clarkesville accident when two goods trains met head on. One of these was the VII 4, and earlier in her career she had a miraculous escape from plunging over the cliffs nead Waitaki into the sea below. She ran off the line going round these cliffs and grazed the rocky wall on the inside, but fortunately did not capsize over the cliff. This old war-horse is now in the Oreti. ENTHUSIASTIC STILL. There was not an old driver whom the reporter approached who did not still retain almost boyish enthusiasm for the giants of the steel track, and who did not wish to be on the footplate again. Despite the long hours they used to work, the low pay they received, the lack of any right of appeal given to them and many other hardships they had to contend with, all looked back with pleasure on their long service with the New Zealand Railways, and took the keenest interest in the doings of the present “boys” on the staff.