Lockdown brings loco back
Spare time during the Covid-19 lockdown allowed Trevor Coulter to finish a restoration project that began 57 years ago on a model steam locomotive built in Timaru almost 100 years ago.
‘‘Some good things came out of lockdown. I couldn’t go anywhere, so I got stuck in and completed the tender,’’ the 78-year-old from Ashburton said as the model became the newest exhibit at the Pleasant Point Railway and Museum from Saturday.
Coulter bought the almost twometre-long model Ab608 railway engine and tender ‘‘in pretty poor condition’’ in 1963 from the men who built it, George Martin and his father, in the late 1920s and early 30s.
Both Coulter and George Martin had been working for New Zealand Insulators in Temuka. Coulter was an apprentice and Martin was on the cusp of retiring as engineering department foreman, with plans to move to Auckland.
‘‘He couldn’t take the engine with him.’’
Coulter believed the father and son built the model based on ‘‘actually drawings’’ of the Ab608.
‘‘I wanted to get it back together because it means something to me. I worked with George Martin for five years.
‘‘If I didn’t do it, it may have got lost in the scrapyard. It could have been lost forever.’’
Coulter poured 500 to 600 hours into restoring the model to its original state, doing so in ‘‘three blocks’’ – the first when he bought it, the second after his children left home, and the third in lockdown.
‘‘I pulled it to pieces and worked from the ground up.
‘‘It’s a work of engineering, a real work of art.’’
Coulter said the Martins – tool, die and pattern makers – dedicated 5000-plus hours into producing the then steaming model.
‘‘It is unable to steam now, as the present-day regulations require the boiler to be of a higher standard.’’
Coulter said he thought Pleasant Point was the best place for it to go, ‘‘because it’s no good sitting at my place and it was originally built in Timaru. It’s where it needs to be.’’
Pleasant Point Railway and Historical Society president Bryan Blanchard said the model was displayed in a restored cabinet donated by Philip Howe, with room for more exhibits after society vicepresident Stewart Frew installed shelving.
Blanchard was ‘‘very, very pleased’’ to see the model on longterm loan at the museum.
‘‘We’re extremely grateful to Trevor for giving it to us, and all the work put into it,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a great attraction, definitely something extra for our visitors.’’
The real Ab608 began operating in 1915. Ten years later, it was given the name Passchendaele – in honour of the more than 5000 railway workers killed in World War I. Boiler issues saw the locomotive withdrawn from service in 1967.