Canterbury Railway Society Inc

News

X 442 & AB Boiler To Leave Ferrymead

17/3/2001

Steam locomotive X 442 is expected to leave Ferrymead in the near future. The X is owned by the NZ Railway & Locomotive Society and has been leased by them to the Feilding and Districts Steam Rail Society, which is restoring WAB 794. 442 was built at Addington Workshops in 1909 (builders' no. 97) for North Island Main Trunk service. It was sold to the Ohai Railway Board in 1943 and worked there until 1968. It was then towed north and stored for some time before arriving at the Ferrymead site by rail in 1978, where it has been on display. Before the X can be railed north it requires work on its couplings and drawgear. Recently the Feilding group had all the loco's axles crack tested and if further work is required the X may be taken off our site to one of Tranz Rail's local facilities. Changes in Tranz Rail operating procedures mean it would be towed on a special train which could possibly include the AB boiler (see below), and this could occur by the end of April if work is completed by then.

Also leaving for Feilding is the spare AB boiler that was purchased by the NZRLS's AB 608 Restoration Fund (run by local railfan Neill Cooper) in 1979. The boiler, No. 989, was formerly used at a Darfield brickworks and was shifted to Ferrymead by road. It has been stored for the last 20 years between the workshop and carriage shed. The boiler was not required by restorers Steam Incorporated when the AB went north in 1993 but will now be taken to Feilding for storage. It could also be held as a spare for WAB 794 which uses the same boiler type, a WAB being a tank version of an AB.