Hi Guys,
This is my first post to the forum and thought I should post a bit about the project I'm working on. We're restoring a 1891 Baldwin locomotive that ran for the Wellington and Manawatu Railway here in New Zealand. This is the only WMR locomotive to have been recovered. The build team on this locomotive are all younger guys mostly under 30 and we have had up to 7 people working on her at one time. Although we usually have 4 people consistently. Anyway here are some photos:

First some of the guys working on the engine machining various parts for the first tender truck.


Below are the compensating beams for the tender trucks these were missing and Weta workshops cut the new ones out for us as a donation.

Below are the tender frames we had to remove the tank and decking in order to clean the frames off now they have a new air tank fitted and most of the brake rigging completed.

The last three photos are of various parts of the tender trucks. They will give you an idea of where we've come from with the parts we've cleaned up.




We've started working on the tender only at first and once that is complete we'll move on to the engine. The tender frames have been completed and we've moved onto the first truck. Hopefully in the next couple of months we'll have the trucks finished and rolling and then we'll have to find money for the tender tank.

If you're interested in some more of the history of our engine please have a look at our website http://www.wmrt.org.nz

Regards,
Ben

Welcome, and pleased to meet ya. Good report, and the photos are a real plus. Glad to see more worldwide posts and info. There is always something to be learned.

You seem to have a nice shop area, which is often the last thing to be addressed at US preservation sites. GOOD WORK. Although, I suppose work may slow some now that winter is approaching in the southern hemisphere.

Bob Kutella

I am impressed considering here is the condition you recieved the engine in!



This is more like building a new engine with some old castings then a restoration program. I wish I could live so close to a group who was doing work like this! I would love to volunteer. Sure it may take you guys 10 or more years, but the thrill when that locomotive runs for the first time will be priceless.

Do you have the plans for the locomotive or are you guys just making the parts to fit? Also out of curiosity is their any trace of a boiler left, or will a new one have to be designed and built?

Here we are in the USA complaining how the engines in the Norfolk VA scrap yard are so far gone, but compared to this engine the Norfolk locomotives are in top notch shape!!! Out of curiosity what made you guys choose this locomotive to restore? Are all the good restoration candidates in your country unavailable?

Unfortunately I never grew up near an operating full sized steam railroad, did acquire a whole machine shop while in high school and build a operating 1/8th scale steam locomotive however. But what I always find pretty interesting when I visit some groups websites online I often see some thing that goes like "we will restore the locomotive when we get $500,000" don't people understand that half the fun in the project can be found in doing as much of the work as possible yourself. Hopefully after I graduate I will be able to move some where near full sized steam, and I would love to get involved with a project of this size. Yea, I too am one of the younger guys.

Adam

adammil1, you have a train in need of work right down the street.
http://www.whippanyrailwaymuseum.net/

I have talked to the museum and they are not planning much yet. But if we can get enough of us to help maybe we can get 385 up to museum standards in a few years.

Afboone,

I have heard about that locomotive via the discussions here on this forum. This past summer I had the privilege of volunteering weekends on the Black River and Western, as it was my first summer living in New Jersey while I had a car. I had a blast and looked forward to going to the railroad each weekend. While I was there the restoration was really wrapping up. Does anyone know the current status of the locomotive. When I started going down there this past summer the tubes were being put in her, and when I ended we were just about ready to install the throttle and hydro her. Not much more to do after that.

Currently I am a senior studying mechanical engineering at Rutgers University, but during the school year I have neither a car or time to volunteer. So hopefully with in the next month or so I will decide what to do next year and where I will go. I currently have an offer from a professor here at school to get paid to go for a masters and do research on advanced machining (an interest of mine I picked up along the way working on steam locomotives) or an offer to go out on the road and work as a field engineer for one of the nation's largest boiler and power plant equipment makers where I can get paid, and hopefully learn what it takes to maintain commercial full sized modern steam (another interest I picked up from steam engines) so we shall see, not quite sure where I will settle down yet, or which one to choose but hopefully where ever I move to in the future will be somewhere near a museum whose volunteers are restoring a full sized steam locomotive.

For me starting to build a live steam locomotive at the age of 13 years old really proved to be one of the best decisions I made in my life. The interests and knowledges I gained from that have opened quite a few doors for me, and all I can say is I hope that us younger guys can keep steam running well into the future.

But I still am impressed with that project they are undertaking in New Zealand. Are there any volunteer groups here in the USA today with their level of ambition? I suppose the only thing harder to do would be to do as the British and build a whole new locomotive from scratch! Too bad this country seems to lack the enthusiasm.

Adam

Hi guys,
Sorry about the late reply.

The New Zealand restoration scene doesn't really slow down in winter. We removed the tender tank from the frames last winter in the rain.

We've been restoring the engine for the last year now. We do have photocopies of the original drawings and are working to them where possible. Baldwin drawings seem to be more of a concept plan without a lot of detail.

The boiler we beyond recovery and therefore we plan to have a new one built. We also have to cast new driving wheels. We've also got a company that is going to donate patterns for any parts that are missing to the project. So hopefully this year we'll have some new castings.

The engine is the only Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company locomotive to have been recovered and therefore has major historical value for New Zealand. Plus it's a Baldwin and who doesn't like Baldwins?

We're currently getting estimates for having the steel for our tender tank rolled and will apply for grants in the next month or so. Our current plans are to have the tender restored by the end of the year.

Ben