Stage I - Salvage

In early 2003 Alex Maciver and I began the task of recovering a steam locomotive from deep within the Southern Alps. Alex had grown up around steam engines at Steam Incorporated, Paekakariki and knew where and what we were looking for, I had no idea. Soon Alex gave me the railway enthusiast “bug” and the mission of recovering and restoring ex Wellington & Manawatu Railway Company locomotive No 9 began.

Our first task was locating the loco (what was left of it). Our first expedition to the Mt. White area proved fruitless. After examining maps photos, various other records and discussing the location with other enthusiasts we found the area which we hoped would yield better results.

Sure enough on the 28th of July the partially buried remains of No 9 were rediscovered again. The frames lay 300m west of  the Bealey River rail bridge near the formation obscured by willow trees, the latter of which may explain the reason that she was spared from scraping, we were almost on top of her before we realised she was there.

We started uncovering the front of the frames to confirm that the cylinders were still intact. Our next move was to contact Tranzrail and seek the information on what in the way of paper work we would need to obtain for our recovery to go ahead. We were instructed to prepare a report on what we wanted to do and our methods for doing it.

Map of where No.9 was dumped

On receiving our report and after many emails asking for a reply, they finally gave us the task of getting approval from the Department of Conservation and Environment Canterbury. We would also need two million dollars public liability insurance and an engineering report. Feeling somewhat disheartened about our prescribed tasks we set out with writing to D.O.C. and Ecan, we received positive results from our letters and got the approvals quickly. We then, after much thinking realised the obvious, where better for two engineering students to get an engineers report than at Canterbury University School of Engineering. 

After sending Tranzrail all the necessary documents we had to wait for contracts to be prepared and sent to us for signing. Luckily we were given permission to carry out preparation work at the site while we waited. We made the first of many pilgrimages to the Bealey on Friday the 29th of November in a rental truck loaded with sleepers loaned to us by the Weka Pass Railway, these would come in handy when we started jacking the frames out of the hole.

Adam, the frames and the mess that was made!

Returning after the Christmas break on 1st February this time with a tent, hi-vis and 2 bottle jacks we put Colin Barry’s shovel to work and within a day we had fully uncovered the headstock, removed the two of the three steel plates and numerous huge rocks from the left cylinder. The next task was cutting the rail, this was accomplished with a lot of sweat, swearing and 12 hacksaw blades (thankfully we brought 30 with us). We began in earnest jacking the frames, this was a painfully slow process as we only had one bar for two jacks, our second proving to be easily bent (it should be pointed out that the jacks were rated at 4 and 3 tons, the frames were later to be found to weigh around the 7 ton mark not 5 as we originally calculated, the 4 ton jack frequently having to bear a lot more than it was supposed too!). On Sunday 2nd February 2003 the frames moved for the first time in 77 years. At the end of the day we had lifted the frames about 2 feet, no small task considering that at least half the lift was lost due to the ground compressing every time we reset the jacks.

Our planned method of moving the frames so they could be picked up by a truck was to slew them around on lubricated rail. This method seemed less and less likely to work as time went by, as it happened the next weekend would hold for us the best of luck. Waking on Saturday 15th we decided that we were too tired to go up until the Sunday, besides we weren’t doing anything on Monday. Once again cruising to the Pass, discussing, as usual, what No 9 will be like thundering at a mile a minute across the Canterbury plains we agreed that this was the last time we were going to spend a night at the Bealey.

On arriving we noted that there was an idle digger on the opposite side of the river. Filing this in back of our minds we set up the jacks and got on with the task of jacking and packing. By the end of the day we had the headstock out of the hole having moved it about 1 metre from where it had been resting.

We awoke to find Transfield, Calcon Asphalt and Transpower vehicles parked at the Bealey Bridge. After asking Transfield if we could cross the tracks we wandered back over to the engine and began packing wood under the saddle and removing the sleepers from under the headstock. By lunch time we had backfilled our holes and levelled off the surrounding area. We were under no illusions that trying to slew the frames around would be next to impossible. We had been discussing the option of asking Calcon for use of their digger, trying not to get our hopes up (and failing miserably) we waded across the river and inquired if this was possible. To our amazement the digger driver not only agreed to help us but it turned out that he had also helped dig K92 out of the Oreti River. Using his digger and a chain the frames were lifted and swung around away from the formation into a position where we could bring a truck along side for the pick up. 

At the limit. Calcons digger just manages to lift the frames

Arriving back in Christchurch we frantically went about finalising our public liability insurance to fax off to Tranzrail and we also decided that a truck equipped with a hi-ab would be the best way to pickup the frames. After many phone calls we found the only truck in town with 9 ton hi-ab mounted in front of a 25ft deck. It was out of service at the time so a date was set, No 9 would have a new home on March the 1st.

Arriving at the site a 10 am on the Saturday our nerves were tested to breaking point when the truck could not get up onto and across the railway formation, we knew it was because there was no weight on the deck but this didn’t help. After finally ascending the slight grade to get onto the stop bank we slowly lead the truck across the bumpy ground to the frames and began loading. In the process the driver managed to wreck the back lights on his recently overhauled truck and rip a mud guard off. After stopping at the top of Porters Pass to check the load and take a photo we arrived at Steam Scene at 1pm where the frame was deposited securely on pig sties.

Adam Orchard, June 2003