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While the tracks might be quiet this winter, plenty of restoration and maintenance work is chugging along behind the scenes at the Pleasant Point Museum and Railway.
On top of the regular winter maintenance work, the group is also working on three significant projects.
President Daniel Smith said one of the projects was replacing the boiler tubes in the Ab 699 steam locomotive.
“The tubes were probably replaced probably 20, 25 years ago. Some have been replaced in recent years but not too many.
“They separate the fire from the water. The fire goes through the tubes and the water is around the tubes.
“The tubes corrode in the firebox end and get burnt back with the heat of the fire. It’s just a fact of life, so we’ve just got to replace them every so many thousand hours.”
The tubes were not the easiest to take out, he said.
“We’ve got to shrink them and then punch them out. Some of the stubborn ones we pull out with the tractor.
“We’ve got the new tubes and we just clean them up then roll them in. It’s just ongoing maintenance to keep the old girl going.
“We’ve got a few other issues that we need to sort out as well [with Ab 699] so it might be another year or so before it’s back in action.”
The group has also been working on replacing rotten sleepers outside the main shed at Keane’s Crossing.
Treasurer Dakota Wylie said they had last been replaced around 30 years ago.
“We’re putting in some new ones as well as replacing some of the fastenings that were holding the tracks to the sleepers and replacing all the ballast for better drainage.
“It’s just a matter of replacing them so that the trains can stay on top of the rails rather than falling between them.
“It’ll be a four- to five-week process by the time we get it back together. This is our second week on it.”
Mr Smith said the work had been progressing smoothly so far.
“We’re working with a team of three or four: one driving the truck, one driving the digger and a few undoing all the bolts and the fasteners on the sleepers and stuff.
“The process we’re up to now is screwing the sleepers back together and then I’ll check the gauge when they fasten it back down, get it all level and then we’ll pack the ballast underneath the sleepers with jackhammers.
“Then potentially in another year’s time we’ll have to repack it because it’ll settle a little bit.”
The final large project the group has been working on is the restoration of a 125-year-old carriage.
Carriage restoration supervisor Stewart Frew said the carriage, which dated back to 1901, had previously been restored in 1970 but had deteriorated since then.
“A lot of the boards are rotten so we have to replace them and it’s also going to have a complete repaint on the outside.
“We’ve taken out the bench seats that run right along either side and they’ve all been sanded. I’ve also got all the windows at my place and they’ve all been redone as well.”
The biggest problem they had faced so far was the fact the carriage floor was quite undulated, he said.
“When it was done last time, about 50-odd years ago, they put 5mm hardboard across it. It was bending and it actually cracked and broke a lot of the vinyl on the top. So I’ve got plywood to put down on it very shortly.
“There has been hours and hours of work just sanding and there is a lot more to do.”
He worked on the carriage on Saturdays and then would be joined by four or five others to work on it on Wednesdays, Mr Frew said.
“They’re very good and very keen. You get a lot of self-satisfaction out of the work.
“We started about three months ago, but there is still probably another six months worth of work to go.”
Anyone interested in lending a hand with the carriage restoration was encouraged to get in touch with the group, Mr Frew said.
connor.haley@alliedmedia.co.nz