Trains ripped apart
Crunching metal, cracking glass and pounding fibres sounded out across Happy Valley in what was a train wreck of a different kind for about 50 train carriages.
Laying vacant and empty, the 20 tonne asbestos-laden bodies were viciously ripped apart by hungry excavators at Wellington’s landfill last week.
Waste operations manager Darren Hoskins said the Ganz Mavag trains were bound for South Africa in 2013 but many were left behind and put into storage. The deal to send the rest overseas fell through last year.
In late May contractors began moving the old carriages to the dump because Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) decided it was the cheapest disposal option.
What metal can be taken will be recycled by Macaulay Metals but the rest of the material will be buried in the approved asbestos-disposal site.
A third of the weight in the carriages was heavy steel, stripped from the bodies of the carriages before the diggers got to work. The bogies have been put aside for any extra metal to be taken.
Hoskins said in the 25 years he had worked at the 1979 to 1982: 44 two-car Ganz Mavag units are built in Budapest, Hungary. June 1982: The first Ganz Mavag runs in on Wellington’s commuter train lines. March 1983: All Ganz Mavag units are in service, but they never run on the Johnsonville line because they do not fit the rails and cannot brake hard enough. May 27 2006: the last Ganz Mavag trains runs on the 2.17pm return service to Melling. 2013: 42 units are sold to a South African buyer (16 are shipped across in 2014). site he had never seen a train carriage being ripped apart, each one taking about 25 minutes to dismantle.
‘‘With the assistance of two excavators they are torn apart. One at either end for stability and then basically just brutally ripped apart. We separate the top skins and they go into a separate fill area. It’s really the end of the line here for the trains.’’
A dust-suppression machine sprayed fine droplets of water over the area as the trains were torn apart to avoid airborne particles.
He said the asbestos would not have been harmful to anyone travelling on the trains while they were com- missioned but disposing of them at the approved facility was ‘‘most responsible’’.
Upper Hutt’s Maymorn Railway Society snapped up a bargain – buying one of the scrapped commuter trains for just $1.
It is understood the society has a temporary accommodation with KiwiRail to store the unit but it will need to find a home and the society will need to recruit members to restore it.
GWRC spokesman Stephen Heath said the dollar train was a ‘‘lucky last’’ and no more would be sold now that the trains were in the process of being broken down then buried.