Low flying at Ruapuna & some steam (flying away)

[amitch]

From a test day this Tuesday (after I moved it from where I first posted it. Silly me)













And from a couple of weeks ago, some steam "flying" away from a train. Stretching aviation photography I know, but still good to see.

[Dave Homewood]

Wow, that steam train looks awesome, great shots Alex. The cars are also superb.

[beagle]

talking to my nan before she passed away years ago, she was saying, as they did in those days, that they got dressed up for a trip but by the end their clothes were so black from the smoke and dust etc

[corsair67]

Alex, was that steam train one of those special trips they've been putting on between Christchurch and Greymouth every now and again? I read something about one of those journeys while I was home in April, and they sound fantastic. I believe they book out very quickly too?

Do they still hold drags at Ruapuna? At one stage they were banned because the strip didn't have enough over-run area at one end, and the authorities were worried a dragster was going to end up crossing the main road.

I remember going out there with my brother and cousins in the mid-70s to watch the drags one afternoon, and having a wonderful time drinking cans of Fanta and eating bags of chips while watching the cars - it was a great day! ;D

[Dave Homewood]

The steam trains used to run every Sunday in winter when I lived at Christchurch, as I recall the line goes past Wigram and I'd always be woken by the ghostly whistle as it went through Hornby.

They're now running special winter trips with steam engines down the central North island track too every Sunday for a limited time.

[Bruce]

I love those big J and K series mainline locos, big fire breathing monsters they are! certainly the modern diesels and electrics look totally boring in comparison.
Awesome photos too Alex, the startled hawk against the puffy bilows of smoke is a nice touch, you obviously directed him well!
Mainline Steam are running a series of excursions to Aurthurs Pass, I guess the one shown was the 8th July trip?
see : www.mainlinesteam.co.nz/

[corsair67]

You're right Dave, the main South/West Coast line runs past Wigram only about 100 metres away from the main gate. No doubt you would have heard all the freight and coals trains that passed Wigram at all hours of the evening too!

A steam train journey down the North Island main trunk line would be a great trip too, especially now as that'd be the only passenger train on the track nowadays.

[Dave Homewood]

There are still passenger trains on the main trunk. That threat to close it was revoked. Only now it runs but two days a week and is three times the price...

I don't recall hearing the freight and coal trains. The steam train used to hoot as it went though but I don't think the others did. It was neat to hear.

[Radialicious]

Jeez guys don't get me started on steam locomotives! My Dad got me into them the minute I could get out of the cot. I have 8mm film of me sitting in/on the cab of the 5in scale Ww tank engine that he built as a young RNZAF machinist in 1970/71. We still have that loco and it needs a bit of work after at leat 700 miles of running around the Chch and Blenheim tracks. He incorporated a cycle odometer into the rear bogie to record how far it had travelled. As a boy it was a real fire breathing monster and my love of engines was sparked by watching him breathe this machine into life. It started as a cold black lifeless model loco about 4-5 feet long and within half an hour was a spitting, hissing boiling tube of muscle. She could easily haul 18 adults on trolleys behind her. When I get more settled myself, I'd love to get her certified and breathe life back into her again.

[Radialicious]

Just in case anyone was wondering why they make so much smoke............... Most of what come out the funnel is steam. The exhaust from the massive steam cylinders is pointed thru a cavity just in front of the boiler. This cavity leads into the funnel. In this area is a venturi of some sorts. When the cylinders exhaust through this venturi it sucks the flames from the firebox through the boiler which heats the water further. I suspect the engineer in this locomotive saw the cameraman coming and fed it the jandal to make for a good photo. It is too inefficent to run a locomotive like this. Mind you, when you are running such as a memorial, the bigger the better.

We had a Wab come through Blenheim earlier in the year and it made such a noise that half the town came to visit. Again it was a black, hissing, living monster that scared the shit out of most of the children and females that were there. When it came to leave, it slithered away like a snake and on the first cough of its exhaust, left a mist of black oily, coal exhaust on the clothes of everyone who was standing there. Blokes just went "Chur" and girls went running for the Persil. It stunned 90 % of those that were there. Diesel electrics have nothing on these beauties.

[Dave Homewood]

Interesting stuff Al. Have you any photos of your Dad's miniature engine?

I love steam trains too, but have seen all too little of them in action. I rode on the Glenbrook line when i was a kid and that was great - I must do it again sometime. And I have also ridden the small trains at the excellent Shantytown on the West Coast. Apart from these and the afore mentioned commercial excusions, are there any other active steam railways in NZ now? Is the Kingston Flyer of Crunchie ad fame still going?

[flyjoe180]

Crikey, a few carbon emissions in those loco pics! Great race car photos too, love the Torana

[John L]

Aah - the Series 1 Lotus Elan - the first sports car I ever drove, a month after I got my license in 1963.
Who is that in the Cooper - not Bill Clark from Tai Tapu, is it?
Love those steam engines - although, as a kid I was scared stiff of them! Is Ja1236 one of Ian Welchs engines?
Was lucky enough last year to get a cab ride in the first steam engine to be allowed to run in summer on West Australian rails since 1971! (fire risks) Unfortunately they weren't allowed to open her right out and the safety procedures were absolutely over the top, but, at least the powers, allowed her out !

[Dave Homewood]

I never really thought about the fire risks of steam railways in Australia. Did they used to have many bushfires caused by the trains back in the days of steam? Or did they manage the scrub at the sides of tracks to avoid it?

[John L]

Not sure myself - only been here a year and a half. Theres a total fire ban here from October to April and all rural machinery has to have spark arrestors fitted - my partners property was set alight by the neighbours Fergy 28 a few years ago.....sparks from the exhaust!!! While all the engines have spark arrestors, they aren't perfect - I guess it was just a risk they took when steam was the only motive power. I know in NZ there used to be the occasional scrub fire caused by steam locos.

[Dave Homewood]

And at Ashburton during the war the RNZAF lost some Tiger Moths in a grass fire caused by a passing steam engine.