Canterbury Railway Society Inc

News

General News - May / June 2000

25/6/00

The electric railway section have been working on the overhead extension. Part of the catenary has been put in place from the signalbox up to the outer home signal. Work continues on class leader EA 1 (EO 39).

As noted elsewhere, a lease agreement has been signed between the NZRLS and the Feilding and District Steam Rail Society for the lease of X 442. In preparation for its eventual departure, the X will soon be taken out of the locomotive shelter to allow work to be done on couplings. Also expected to leave the site is the spare boiler for AB 608. The boiler is presently stored alongside the workshop. The opportunity will be taken to rearrange the locomotive shelter when the X is out with more wagons displayed there.

Wheelsets which were formerly stored on the section of centre rail track in front of the locomotive shelter have been moved to a new location behind the running shed. The Fell centre rail section will have wagons placed on it for display / storage. The signals section are to remove the old ticket seller's hut from this area, which has been used as a signal location for some years.

It is planned to have a crane on site soon to remove the double slip from its wagon, lift the replacement bogies for A 1825 out of a wagon for the Historic Rail Vehicle Trust, and move the overhead crane from its present location near the 2 Foot Gauge group's site. A front end loader will soon remove the heap of dirt from in front of Road 6 of the carriage shed as part of preparations for connecting this road to the branch. The doors which have been stacked in this area for some years have been removed and will be recycled for other uses by the carriage section.

Work continues on both F 13 and D 140. The boilers of both locomotives have received an acid treatment, using steam from the Price CB, to remove scale from the inside of the boiler. The F's underframe was lifted off its wheels a few weeks ago so that the wheels and axles can be checked. Parts from F 12 are to be used in F 13's overhaul. The carriage section continues to make excellent progress on 20 foot guard's van F 79, which is now looking much tidier.

The Diesel Traction Group has almost completed the 24 month check of locomotive DE 1429. The DE had a run the full length of the Ferrymead Railway on 24th June and will soon be ready to resume service on the Railway.