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stuff.co.nz/ when you start moving the steam engine down a track and then you need other attributes but seeing him out on the track makes you feel quite exuberant really, we think it’s a great achievement,’’ Beaman says.

Following almost 30 years of loyal service with the Puponga Coal and Goldmining Company, in Golden Bay, from 1901 until 1930, the little locomotive was affectionately nicknamed Donald as a nod to his Scottish roots.

Originally built for the gas works in Glasgow, Donald was eventually replaced by two socalled Little Donalds as the repair bill from Nelson’s Anchor Foundry grew as he aged.

Shunted off the track after new engines arrived, he was then picked over for parts and left to the indignity of lying half entombed in a somewhat sodden grave.

He was rescued from what may have been his final resting place outside the mine where he once served so faithfully.

The task of bringing him back from the brink had been an arduous one, said Stichbury, who served his apprenticeship with iron and brass founders, engineers and boiler makers William Cable.

‘‘In New Zealand, you couldn’t just go to a shop and buy a new part, you had to make it or refurbish the old one. This helped immensely when it came to restore Donald.

‘‘I had helped restore an old traction engine that was given to my grandfather by my great grandfather for his 21st birthday so he wouldn’t go away to sea and learn about steam.

‘‘I managed to get it going and was approached by the

‘‘The nice thing now is seeing Donald going up and down the track and the little kids in prams who wave at you. Most have never seen anything like this before.’’ John Stichbury

organisation to see if I could spend some time at the Riverside Railway on Donald. In a way, it was a labour of love, it’s quite nice to actually achieve something when you see what we actually started with.

‘‘The nice thing now is seeing Donald going up and down the track and the little kids in prams who wave at you. Most have never seen anything like this before,’’ he said.

Donald is set to soon take paying customers along the 5-kilometre stretch of railway that links Brayshaw Park and Riverside Park to the Aviation Museum and Classic Car Museum at Omaka.

Safety is a top priority and a full cab was first made-up in plywood before the new steel one was fitted at Cuddon Engineering. Lights and air brakes have also been added.

After almost three years of hard work, the project is nearing completion with just final finetuning and painting to go.

Like his fellow engineers, Stichbury expressed concern over the future of the railway. The craft they have honed over decades needs to be passed onto the next generation or risks being lost forever.

‘‘The biggest problem is trying to get young people through. It’s going to be hard for anyone to learn all of the things that we were taught but we are happy to try.

‘‘Obviously you’re quite proud of what you’ve achieved, what the group has achieved and what Riverside Railway has achieved, that you’ve stopped something from disappearing off the face of the earth altogether.’’

It is a sentiment shared with Beaman.

‘‘It bothers us that as we get a bit older there are not so many younger people who are either interested or want to do things like this. We would like more younger people to be involved, to learn how to do these things and carry on the tradition.

‘‘As we get older, things happen and we need people to follow along and keep it all going for generations to come.’’