Plans under way to retrieve locomotives
The Lumsden Heritage Trust hopes to remove two partlysubmerged locomotives from the Oreti River next January.
Trust chairman John Titter and secretary Rob Scott plan to ask community funders for help with the project’s costs of about $200,000.
The amount will also cover expenses to clean and preserve the locomotives, along with two coal tenders, and their placement in the Lumsden railway precinct. They will not be restored.
The trust is working with Venture Southland on the project.
Made in 1885, the locomotives and coal tenders are situated in the river on Roger and Alistair Hamilton’s farm at Mararoa Junction, northern Southland.
They have agreed to the recovery plan and are pleased to know the locomotives and coal tenders will be displayed in Lumsden.
Titter said the ownership of the locomotives and coal tenders was unclear as they were dumped by New Zealand Rail in 1927 after scrap metal prices remained low post-World War I.
In December, earthmoving machinery and manpower removed soil and mud covering some parts of the locomotives.
It enabled Titter, Scott and others in the project team to have a close-up inspection.
‘‘We’ve had a dig around and got an idea of what we’re in for,’’ Titter said.
One locomotive is buried deeper than the other and it is envisaged two industrial cranes will be needed.
Titter hoped to secure a third of the funding before applying to the Lottery Grants Board in June – the deadline for the next round of distributing funds.
Consent given to the trust five years had expired and needed to be renewed, he said.
A public viewing day will be arranged before work begins on extracting the locomotives and coal tenders.