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Canterbury Railway Society Inc News Ferrymead Railway Wins Rolling Stock And Heritage Awards 7/6/2002 The Canterbury Railway Society has won a Federation of Rail Organisations New Zealand (FRONZ, formerly National Federation of Rail Societies) restoration award for guard's van F 79 and a Rail Heritage Trust special merit award for the ex Sockburn Crossing Keepers Hut. Van F 79 is one of a pair at Ferrymead (F 78 being the other). They were an early type of guard's van in use in NZ in the 19th century and were assembled at Christchurch on 20 foot steel chassis manufactured by the Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Co of Shrewsbury, England. Both F 78 and F 79 were restored at the same time at Ferrymead with the restoration work largely completed by our team, headed by Keith Brown and Graham Inwood, in June 2001. F 79 has run on passenger trains on several occasions at Ferrymead. The first running days were at the WD 357 Centenary celebrations in July 2001. Both F 78 and F 79 are normally stored undercover and have been wheeled out on various occasions for special train operations. The Sockburn Crossing Keepers Hut is believed to be the only surviving example of its type in NZ. These huts were provided for railway crossing keepers at busy level crossings throughout New Zealand. The crossing at Sockburn was located adjacent to tram sheds and the keeper, in addition to stopping road traffic whenever a train was due, also controlled tramway signals for the tram tracks that crossed the railway lines. The tramway lines were discontinued in the mid 1950s. The crossing keepers hut was used at Ferrymead for a time to store signalling equipment and was located originally on the northwest side of Clem's Crossing near the Moorhouse Signalbox. Several years ago the Society accepted a proposal by a Jaycees group to restore the increasingly derelict hut. Plans were also formed to turn the hut into a signalbox at the south end of the Moorhouse station platform but were discarded when it was realised that the building was a unique example of its type. It was then relocated to the pedestrian level crossing in Moorhouse yard and has been fitted with a small lever frame to control several nearby signals. The Society wishes to pay credit to the restoration teams for both projects and particularly our longserving members Keith Brown, Graham Inwood, the Riccarton Jaycees and others who led the restoration work on both projects.
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