Drewry Shunter
When the Scribe joined up with the Waitara Railway Preservation Society, they had been going for a little while now. They had a 1954 Drewry shunter, which was donated to the Society from the Ravensdown Fertiliser Works in New Plymouth in April 1999. With the help from Ian Roebucks Crane hire, and transported by FBT Transport, the shunter was transported to our yards. Once there the Drewry was slowly being stripped of everything down to the bare chassis. Which has taken a long time, as the work being done at the weekends, and most if not all of the stripped stuff is being stored at different members residents. At the moment the chassis and cab are now waiting for the sandblasting to be done.
The motor is no good except for some parts that may be salvageable for spares. With the help from member Dave Tyler, the Society managed to get a replacement motor for a price of $2,500.00, down from $3,000.00, well done Dave.
Guardsvan
The "F" Guardsvan, which was used in the Taranaki region, also had been acquired from a Takapau farmer, February, by the time the Scribe had joined. When most of the work had been done on the Drewry, work started on the Guardsvan. The first thing was to lift the van off its bogies. then lowered onto trestles so that the chassis is ready for sandblasting. There have varying work carried out on the van, scaling the rust off, removing battery boxes and stripping the outer wall cladding off. With some rotting timber in the frame work, which had to replaced before recladding the outside walls, which at this stage about one quarter of the way done.
Work has been stopped on the Guardsvan project, as with the purchase of the branch line, there have been work required with the fencing and the like. But then that is another story.
"LB" Wagons
Two "LB" wagons were purchased from Tranz Rail which were at the Stratford yards, and removed in September 2000, on a usual Stratford wet day. With five members in attendance with Amtec driver/crane operator. One wagon went on the trailer that Amtec had on behind, and the other on Malcolm Thomass truck. This operation took about two hours to load the two wagons.
On the way home Malcoms truck broke a bearing on one of the differential, which ment that he could not drive the truck any further. This happened between Inglewood and Lepperton.
The Amtec driver on reaching our yards unloaded the wagon from his trailer on to the rails and was waiting for us. With Malcolms cell phone, a message was able to be sent to Amtec driver to say that there is a problem and that he would not be needed for the rest of the day. The second wagon duly arrive and was also to rest on the rails with its companion, and the guardsvan.