Скачать или смотреть JB1236 At Whanganui Vintage Weekend 2019

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Steam locomotive JB1236 ran a series of short railway excursions to East Town, Ruatangata and Kai Iwi during Whanganui Vintage Weekend 2019

On the morning of Saturday 19th January, the train came up from Mainline Steam's Plimmerton base with a small group of passengers. Then the train ran three excursions on that afternoon and three more on the Sunday, for Whanganui locals. The locomotive was turned late Sunday afternoon and the remarshalled train later departed back to Plimmerton.

Whanganui is at the end of a 5km (3M) branch line from Aramoho. The branch's junction with the Marton - New Plymouth Line is orientated 'Down' i.e to the South. All six short excursions in this video had to go to East Town yard with the two Ruatangata bound trips being able to pass straight through. However, for the Kai Iwi bound trips, the locomotive had to run around it's train at East Town because Kai Iwi is West of Whanganui, i.e 'Up' the MNPL. That is why in the video, the locomotive is leading smokebox-first in some scenes and tender-first in other scenes on the trip to Kai Iwi. The tank wagon was marshalled onto the 'Up' end of the consist; i.e the North pointing end of the train for all six excursions. The tank wagon was placed onto the South end of the train just before final departure back to Plimmerton on Sunday afternoon.

Ruatanaga is in the Whangaehu Valley with crossing loop and a track maintenance machinery storage siding. This location was opened in 1947 as part of the Turakina Deviation and you can see that the old Goods Shed has survived into private land usage, but the passenger station has long disappeared The crossing loop was replaced in 1998. Originally called Whangaehu, the loop's name was changed to Ruatanagata to avoid radio telephone confusion with other similar sounding place names on the MNPL.

Kai Iwi was connected by rail in 1879 and today has an enlarged crossing loop that was installed in 1998. To get to Kai Iwi the train must ascend out of the Whanganui River catchment up the famous Westmere Bank which is one of New Zealands steepest railway gradients. It averages at about 1/35 (2.86%) but has sections as steep as 1/33.
Westmere is 120m (396ft) above sea level and trains face a steep climb up gradients either side of Westmere.

East Town is a former marshalling yard that was opened in 1959 and nowadays is used as a log loading site. The name East Town is synonymous with the famous railway workshops that was a major employer in Whanganui from 1880 to 1986.

Vintage Weekend has been running in various forms since March 2001. It celebrates Whanganui's heritage by holding street festivals and themed activities. Heritage operator Mainline Steam first sent a train to participate in the festivities in 2013.

1236 was built by North British Locomotive Works in 1939. It was given the makers number 24559 and delivered to New Zealand in March 1940. 1236 was withdrawn from service in 1971 and was stored at various Auckland rail heritage precincts. Restoration commenced in 1998 after the locomotive had been moved into the care of Mainline Steam and successfully obtained main line running rights in 2001. The locomotive was overhauled again in 2017.

The passenger cars used in these excursions were built in the early 1940s by NZ Railways and given a modern makeover in the 1990's with big panoramic windows suitable for the tourist market. These cars were withdrawn from KiwiRail service in 2011 after a very long career.