Historic steam engine WW644 will carry passengers including Prime Minister Chris Hipkins to Te Mawhai Rd – near Kihikihi – for an historic railway line handover ceremony this month.
The April 15 transfer relates to the Treaty of Waitangi settlement between Maniapoto and the Government.
It has been 138 years since the first sod was turned in a similar place, south of the Punui River.
That occasion marked the formal agreement to build Te Ara o Tūrongo, the main trunk railway through the King Country.
Glenbrook Vintage Railway (GVR) general manager Tim Kerwin said GVR owned and would operate the train.
“You could just turn up with a modern diesel train and do the job, but given the significance of the occasion, I think it’s fantastic there is the ability to have a steam engine.
“It’s a journey back in time. We’re not hopping into air-conditioned carriages; we’re hopping on carriages that represent that era.”
They are of wooden tongue and groove construction, with pressed metal ceilings.
The locomotive, WW644, was built in 1915 at Dunedin’s Hillside workshops; GVR bought it around fifty years later.
The train and its carriages are similar to those used in the late nineteenth century, and in 1908 when the main trunk railway opened.
“There weren’t a hell of a lot of technical advances. We’re probably talking 10 or 20 years from when deals were done, to when this equipment rolled out,” Tim said.
“That’s the closest thing you’ll get to it, really.”
On the day, the on-board staff would wear period dress, he said. For the crew up front, that meant “a black shirt with bib and brace overalls and a white tie.”
This outfit was the unofficial drivers’ uniform during much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
And what would the steam engine look like?
For those who might picture an enormous express locomotive like the mainline J Class engine, Tim said the reality was slightly different.
WW644 is “the smallest engine in New Zealand certified to run on KiwiRail tracks, so it’s quite unique,” he said.
What it lacked in size, it made up for in charm – it was “a really cute little engine.”
Shunting was its original purpose.
For example, if it had been based in Hamilton, it would have transported loads which the main line express engines would then take on longer journeys – perhaps to Palmerston North or Wellington.
It would have travelled short distances between smaller town railway stations.
“It would cruise down to places like Te Awamutu. It might pick up fertiliser [or] wagons of farmers’ goods. And then [travel] to Ōtorohanga; it might drop off timber products there.
Once it carried a big enough load for itself, it would return to Hamilton.
To “really simplify,” Tim explained, it was like a little blue Thomas the Tank Engine, as opposed to the big green Gordon.
Although it worked within a small local area each time, WW644 had been based in many places around New Zealand. These included Auckland, Greymouth and Dunedin.
On retirement in 1971 it was transported – in a big operation up from the West Coast of the South Island, to start a new life in the heritage railways sphere.
Recently, it had been overhauled by GVR.
The April 15 occasion would be the 100-year-old locomotive’s “first big proper outing” since its three-year restoration.
GVR staff and volunteers, aged from 14 to 86, did that mahi at their workshop at Pukeoware, near Waiuku, and the locomotive has now met all compliance requirements.
“It’s just been certified to go out onto the main line; we’ve done a couple of test runs,” Tim said.
One was an outing to Hamilton for invited guests and members.
Those guests may not have noticed a few subtle changes: all was not as antique as it seemed.
“It’s got a lot of modern digital technology hidden behind various different cabinets, which look like they’ve always been there, and they have,” Tim said.
“But we’ve found all these little nooks and crannies and put a lot of digital technology in there. So, it’s got event recorders and radar speedos.
“To the public eye, you wouldn’t see any of that. We’ve hidden it away so it maintains its heritage look.”
The train’s boiler had been refurbished, too.
“It was built in Dannevirke in 2015.
“It’s the largest steam locomotive boiler built in New Zealand since they were building them back in the New Zealand Railways days.”
There was one more way the train journey would mix old and new: on the day of the big event, it would not be practical to turn the train around. It would not use Te Kūiti’s historic turntable, Tim said, because it did not need to travel that far south.
Instead, after the ceremony, the train would be pulled back to Hamilton using a modern diesel locomotive.
Tim will be driving the steam train himself.
He could drive trains on the main line tracks because he is a former KiwiRail driver and has the appropriate certification. He drove freight trains and steam passenger trains for the national operator before returning to GVR as its general manager.
“Myself and another up front will be shovelling the coal and pulling the whistle.”
His train driving career had been the work of a lifetime: he started with GVR as a 10-year-old volunteer.
“From a young age, I had it set. That’s what I wanted to be.”
Tim will be joined by colleagues including a GVR train manager and onboard service manager. Other team members will serve refreshments.
“The onboard staff’s role will be to look after everybody’s safety and comfort on board and provide any information.”
He said few organisations aside from GVR had the expertise in rail operations and engineering to do the job required on April 15.
“The capability of just turning up somewhere on the KiwiRail tracks with the steam engine.”
GVR staff and volunteers appreciated the chance to offer their services for the ceremony.
“To be involved with this event and to provide the train for this significant occasion – we’re all really excited and quite humbled really to be asked to be involved.”
The train’s presence parallels events at the original sod turning ceremony in 1885.
Historian Michael Belgrave wrote in his analysis of the King Country’s political significance, Dancing with the King, that “special trains had been provided from Auckland,” for that occasion.
Costs for the “excursion train” were split with the Cambridge Racing Club, which happened to have a meeting on the same day.
A partner in the 2023 ceremony, the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) in Auckland, own one such special train: an older steam locomotive that ran along the main trunk railway during the late 19th century.
MOTAT chief executive and museum director Michael Frawley said timing issues prevented it from being used. So, they called upon a third stakeholder: KiwiRail, which chartered GVR to provide a train and staff.
“KiwiRail have arranged for the Glenbrook Vintage Railway to provide a steam locomotive for the ceremony.
“We did not have time to prepare the locomotive that ran on the Te Ara o Tūrongo line in the late 1890s early 1900s, and to get it certified to run on a public rail corridor.”
The April 15 ceremony itself, and a further explanation of its history, will be the subject of further King Country News coverage.
