The sound of a new diesel locomotive is set to echo through Pleasant Point this Matariki weekend.
On July 12, the Pleasant Point Museum and Railway will be holding a Matariki Shunter Running Day to unveil its newly acquired TR 880 diesel shunting locomotive
Treasurer Dakota Wylie said the group first came across the locomotive on Facebook.
“At the end of March, it was supposed to be auctioned off, but nobody took it. We saw it on Facebook, shared the post around our committee and then we decided it would be a good idea to put in an offer for it.
“One of our members rang up, asked how much they would let it go for, was given a number, and we thought, well, we’ll take it.
“The offer was put in, and then the following day it was on a truck down from Palmerston North.”
He said to the best of their knowledge, the 20-tonne former Kiwirail locomotive had spent most of its time in Wellington.
“Probably in the past year or so it was in Palmerston North, but it hasn’t been used for probably a few months. Kiwi Rail was selling off four of them.
“Two went to two other rail groups, and another one’s now privately owned. We’re told this is the better one of the four, so we’re quite happy with that.”
Shunting locomotives are generally used in rail yards to sort, assemble and separate railway carriages.
They act as the workhorses of freight and passenger networks, moving cars into specific formations, repositioning them for maintenance, and connecting them to larger trains.
Mr Wylie said the main reason they wanted another diesel locomotive, especially a bigger one, was the current one they had, TR 18, often struggled to pull AB 699 (a historic steam locomotive) out of the shed.
“We’re relying on one diesel loco at the moment, and if we have a breakdown, we’re sort of a bit stuck. So the idea was to get another one to be able to easily pull the big loco out of the shed, and also just to add to our collections.”
President Daniel Smith said it was quite exciting to be making an event out of the unveiling.
“It’s quite exciting — there seem to be quite a few people interested in it, which is quite nice.
“It’s nice to have [Rangitata MP] James Meager coming along to play his part as well, he will be cutting the ribbon.
“We’re also going to be running a New Zealand Railways Land Rover from back in the ’50s that we have on loan.”
The day will run from 11am to 3pm, with the ribbon cutting taking place at the Pleasant Point Station platform before the second trip about 11.30am.
