It might be said there is no single group with as much ambition as the rail preservationist movement in New Zealand. We are often restoring equipment that has be used up but how about used up and tossed in the river. I know this has been done at least once before down there.

http://www.midlandrailheritage.co.nz/main/projects.html

http://www.midlandrailheritage.co.nz/

Hello, Santa Fe Mikados!

I believe the motivation for New Zealand is that there are no other sources of surviving Victorian power in preservation. For example, here in the U.S. older power survived on branch lines, but in New Zealand the same scenario did not play out.

Has anybody ever located either one of those locomotives,and if they did,could they be raised and restored?

Cheaper to build replicas. Much cheaper.

Guys,
Here is a link to some photos of an Baldwin engine some friends and I are working on. It was pulled out of a river on New Zealand South Island and is now located in Wellington.

I haven't managed to take some photos of the progress for a while as I've been assiting another group in laying track.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18854674@N04/sets/72157606699342304/

As you can see the tender chassis is coming together. We've got a group working on it on the weekends at the moment and are currently trying to raise money to have a new tender tank made.

Have a look at our website for more information on the recovery process.

http://www.wmrt.org.nz/

Also have a look here for a video of the tender chassis running on track for the first time since the 1920s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FGOrp0bXog

Cheers,
Ben

THIS is why I like RyPN.

Stephen

Where are they getting the money for all of these jack-up-the-whistle restorations?

Money for these restoration projects comes from donations and grants.

New Zealand has a lotto system that returns a lot of money into community projects and any not for profit group can apply for a grant.

http://www.cdgo.govt.nz/ gives more details on the various grants avaliable.

Also the pokie machines at pubs have to give money back into the community through grants. There are several trusts that run the pokie machines and not for profit groups can apply for funding though these trusts.

http://www.nzct.org.nz/ is one example of a community trust.

Cheers,
Ben

Any one here hear of sunk locomotives in North America that are not rumors and better yet have photos of them.

I have already covered these in another thread:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29076&p=138816

I am not a scuba diver myself, so I have no photographs I can republish; but I mentioned which ones have I found pictures on the web; so feel certain that they do indeed exist.

Maybe so Howard, but I have heard that the builder of the Civil War era "Leviathan" 4-4-0 # 63 is having all kinds of problems with the FRA because he has a NEW locomotive to their way of thinking. And Leviathan was built to 1860-era specs. I don't know if that is true or not, but that is what I have heard.

Les

"Civil War era" --- the important words. There is a big difference between the appurtenances and safety appliances on a 20s-40s-era 2-8-2 and those on (or not on, more accurately) a replica 1865-era 4-4-0. And I suspect that is the crux of the FRA issue.

My point was that if one wanted to (and more importantly had the resources to) recover any of those Kaw River engines, the expense of simply excavating them, and getting permission to do so, would far exceed the cost of simply building a new ATSF 2-8-2.

All of those buried river engines had AAR couplers, air compressors and 6-ET brakes, cut levers, corner steps and grabs, etc.

Howard P.

So, like the Mason or Lafayette, you use them on an insular, unregulated demonstration a line for interpretive purposes.

I'd love to see Golden Spike NHS actually carry visitors to their site from Thiokol behind Jupiter and 119. The modern visitors center and road and cars detracts from the context from my POV.

dave

Okay perhaps I'm confused..AAR couplers would be replaced,and there are several locomotives running with 6-ET brake valves and old,but rebuilt air compressors,or you can get a new one or two from China. Cut levers would be replaced and the locomotive would otherwise be tailored to meet current FRA Part 230 regulations. Not knowing the exact location of the locomotives and their condition in the river would seem to dictate that they first be found and evaluated before any attempt to recover them could be undertaken. The rumor I had heard was that some pieces of the locomotives were removed to facilitate the building of the new bridge. It would be a facinating project.