107-year-old steam engine on the move
After two years of hard graft, the Thornbury Vintage Tractor and Implement Club has finally got its rare steam engine.
The 16-tonne 1911 Garrett stationary steam engine was moved from a shed in Waianiwa to the Thornbury Vintage Tractor and Implement Club museum yesterday.
Thornbury Vintage Tractor and Implement Club president Fraser Pearce said the engine was a huge piece of equipment that had been an important part of Southland’s history. The club was moving the engine to the museum in Thornbury so they could restore it to working order, Pearce said.
The engine was brought into Invercargill in 1911 and used by Wright Stevens to drive a seed cleaning plant.
It was then sold to the Edendale Dairy Company, who never used the engine and leased it to the Waimumu Lignite and Coal Company in the 1930s.
In the mid-1930s, it was bought by Harold Richardson and taken to Progress Valley to drive the Niagara sawmill.
When the mill shifted to using a diesel engine, the steam engine became obsolete so it was dumped outside, Pearce said.
In the 1970s, steam enthusiast Keith Smith bought the engine and took it to Invercargill to restore it.
It was relocated it to Waianiwa in 1979, where it had stayed at until now, Pearce said.
In 2016, the club put a deposit on the engine after Smith offered them the engine and the shed it was stored in.
The club was concerned if it did not buy the engine it would end up in another region, Pearce said.
The club started a fundraising campaign to raise the $60,000 it needed to buy and shift the engine and shed to their museum by selling advertising in the Southland Farm Location Map.
In May, the Lottery Environment and Heritage Committee granted the club $44,654 to help them move it.
‘‘That gave us the confidence we need to get the job done.’’
The engine was a great addition to the collection the club had and would be something different for the public to look at, Pearce said.
It was the only one of its kind in the country and one of about three left in the world, he said.
Pearce said the club was hopeful the engine and the shed would be ready to be viewed by the public by Labour Weekend 2019.