The tale of Taranaki’s ‘buried’ train
There’s a Taranaki tale that there was once a train that was no longer needed at a fertiliser plant so it was pushed off the edge of the railway lines into a pit and covered over to be forgotten forever.
But it was never forgotten, nor was it ever found, and with the construction of a proposed mega shopping complex looming on the old New Plymouth Ravensdown site, locals are wondering if the tale of the mystery train will be confirmed or quashed.
‘‘Mythology says it’s definitely there and the old fellas said they swear it was there,’’ Ravensdown regional manager Mike Davey said. ‘‘So I’m not saying it’s not there but I’d say I’m 90 per cent sure it is.
‘‘It’ll be like finding gold.’’ The mystery train is rumoured to be a steam locomotive that was made out of heavy steel, around seven metres long and used on the site in the early 1900s when it was owned by New Zealand Farmers’ Fertiliser.
Davey has worked in the fertiliser business in Taranaki for more than 50 years, and his dad before him, so he’s pretty sure the tales of the buried train are true.
‘‘It was a story well told by the old chaps that worked there,’’ Davey said. ‘‘They’d all be dead now.’’
Today, he stands where he believes it’s buried, under a makeshift ramp that was once used by small trucks to bring phosphate rock - used to make fertiliser - up to the manufacturing site.
‘‘The loco is here somewhere,’’ Davey said pointing at the ground. ‘‘They pushed it over the side as a fill.
‘‘They had to build a ramp, now an easy way to do that is to chuck a bloody big locomotive in, then fill around it.’’
Davey guesses the old steam engine is probably buried 30-40 feet underground and was dumped because there was nothing else to do with it.
‘‘I guess it was past its use by date or buggered,’’ he said. ‘‘The railways would have said ‘well chuck it over there’.
‘‘How else would you scrap them? They’re a huge heavy machine, they’d probably weigh 100 tonne at least.
‘‘She’d be a big mother.’’ He said in his time he’s never seen a steam locomotive removed from the site, which is why he’s convinced there’s still one buried and assumes the contractors will find it when they start work on the new complex.
Also, the makeshift ramp sits around seven metres higher than ground level, Davey said.
‘‘I guess if they clear the site and clear this site here they’ll come across it, yeah.’’
The fertiliser site has been sold and developers Bluehaven Management want to turn it into a shopping complex with 30 specialty retail stores, a supermarket, a six-screen cinema, a hardware store, offices and a 75-room hotel.
When Graeme Goldsworthy, a founding member of the Waitara Railway Preservation Society, heard there was a shopping centre proposed for the old Ravensdown site he couldn’t help but think about the train tales he’d heard.
‘‘I don’t know they’re aware it’s there,’’ Goldsworthy said.
Goldsworthy is one of the many railway enthusiasts Stuff spoke to that had heard the tale of the buried train.
‘‘There’s a lot of controversy about whether it is there,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m led to believe it is.’’
He said ‘‘heard it from the horse’s mouth’’ that there was a steam locomotive buried, but unlike Davey, he’d heard it was buried under a concrete pad under a building.
Goldsworthy said he heard an employee once tried to locate the old locomotive with a metal detector, but didn’t remember the result.
‘‘They had a suspicion where it might be.’’
The condition of the old locomotive is unknown, and Goldsworthy thought decades of fertiliser would have had an impact.
However, Davey was positive. ‘‘There might be a bit of surface rust on it but I’m pretty sure it’ll still be there,’’ he said.
Bluehaven Management were asked if they were aware of the buried steam locomotive and they said they weren’t in a position to comment until next week.