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Post by Darren Masters on Oct 27, 2014 17:03:47 GMT 12
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Post by suthg on Oct 27, 2014 18:54:04 GMT 12
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 10, 2015 13:11:23 GMT 12
from the Manawatu Standard....Steam engine on Anzac Day dutyBy THOMAS HEATON | 12:00 NOON - Saturday, April 07, 2015THE “PASSCHENDAELE”: Ab608, a 100-year-old steam engine will travel from Palmerston North to Wellington on Anzac day this year. It will then travel from Palmerston North to Waiouru for one of the new WW1 exhibitions at the Army museum.A 100-YEAR-OLD steam engine will run like it's straight out of the shop as it takes Palmerston North residents to the capital for Anzac Day.
The refurbished Passchendaele steam train will carry passengers from Palmerston North to Wellington, stopping in Levin and Shannon.
Leaving at 6.30am on Saturday, April 25th, the train will do a round trip and arrive back at 6pm the same night.
Built 100 years ago, the “new” AB608 steam train was refurbished by Steam Incorporated, based in Paekakariki.
Business manager John Bovis said the $500,000 refurbishment had put the train in full working order and it would pull fully-refurbished carriages from the era.
The steam engine was an apt way of remembering the Anzac soldiers who gave their lives for the country, he said.
The train is named after the Battle of Passchendaele, where 3,700 New Zealanders died. Of those, 447 were railway workers.
Bovis said the minister of railways at the time chose the name for the locomotive to mark their sacrifice.
Steam Incorporated was expecting to carry between 250 and 300 passengers to Wellington and back, he said.
Passchendaele will also make a trip the next day, to Ohakune and Waiouru for a newly collated gallery at the Army Museum.
“It's just a great day out and a nice trip up through Rangitikei and Manawatu, being pulled by a World War I locomotive.”
The train on Sunday will stop in Marton and Feilding also.
In Waiouru passengers will have three hours to make the most of the museum before heading back down to Palmerston North.
“We took the opportunity to use it for the whole of the Anzac weekend.”
The train will also make an extensive tour of the South Island later on in the year, Bovis said.
This will include a visit to the Addington Workshops in Christchurch where the locomotive was built in 1915.• STEAM INCORPORATED mainline excursionswww.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/67626458/Steam-engine-on-Anzac-Day-duty
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