A second Manchesterbuilt loco recovered
A SECOND 2-6-2 built in Manchester in 1885 and exported to the far side of the world has been successfully lifted out of a river bed in New Zealand where it was dumped as part of flood defences 93 years ago.
As reported last month, the Lumsden Heritage Railway lifted New Zealand Railways (NZ) 32-ton 3ft 6in gauge V class No. 127 out of a tributary of the Oreti River near Lumsden in the Southland region of South Island.
Trust members had hoped to recover No. 126, another of the class of 13 built by Nasmyth, Wilson & Company, but the second operation proved too difficult on the day, as the rusting hulk lay in a more challenging location.
International attention
However, trust members decided that they would not be beaten that easily and on February 26 began the second recovery operation. No. 126 was lifted out of the mud the following day, and on February 28, was displayed alongside its equally-corroded sister on a length of track in Lumsden’s railway station precinct. Already the pair have been attracting international visitors.
Trust chairman John Titter said that recovering the locomotives from the riverbed, the climax of an operation that has been planned for six years, was almost as exciting as his wedding and buying his farm.
NZR dumped the pair in 1927 for flood protection, after they were deemed as surplus stock and because the price of scrap metal was low after the First World War.