RM31 being lifted by two cranes at Ahururi Yard, Napier on Wednesday March 15.
RM31 being lifted by two cranes at Ahururi Yard, Napier on Wednesday March 15.
The recent East Coast Cyclone Gabrielle damage has seriously impacted various areas in the Tararua District, notably in the coastal areas and northeast parts.
However, one local group was also seriously impacted by the widespread damage resulting from the mid-February event. This was the Pahiatua Railcar Society, which has regularly provided a range of railcar services in the Napier/Hastings/Central Hawke’s Bay area for the Art Deco organisation in the last 10 years or so.
After several years of Covid-impacted Art Deco events, its railcar RM31 “Tokomaru” was again positioned in Napier, following a day of Manawatu Gorge trips the previous weekend.
So it was already in Napier when the cyclone struck on February 14-15 a few days later. As usual, it was housed in the Napier railway yard at Ahuriri and was not damaged at all.
As a result of the storm, there was serious damage to the Hawke’s Bay rail network, including several damaged rail bridges and various washouts.
The most serious damage was between Clive and Awatoto, where two major rivers - the Ngaruroro and the Tutaekuri - flow into the sea. I inspected this area recently and a number of spans in one bridge have collapsed, there is a series of track washouts and acres of slash and other debris.
For what it’s worth, my opinion is that a likely solution will entail rebuilding the two bridges and about 1km of track at a higher level. Failure to do so will likely result in more damage during future flood events.
Initially, it appeared that the railcar would be trapped in Napier for some time. However, it seems KiwiRail shares my concerns to some degree, as it decided to temporarily move its Hawke’s Bay freight operations to sidings at Hastings and road all freight to and from Napier, so as to retain its customers.
KiwiRail had three locomotives trapped in Napier, including one large DL class, its largest mainline locomotive. After a period of almost daily changes in plans, these were moved to Hastings on Wednesday, March 15.
We were offered the opportunity to take advantage of a lift by heavy crane on-site for this and did so. Initially, we thought this move would only be to Hastings, and we would then drive it back.
Eventually, it became obvious the best course was to pay the considerable cost of transporting it by road to Pahiatua and hiring two McIntosh cranes to unload it there.
RM31 back on its feet at Pahiatua Railway Station, after being transported from Napier.
Another factor was to ensure we could meet some future trip commitments and protect our reputation, not to mention the potential income involved. So three of our experienced volunteers supervised the railcar being craned onto a low-loader on Wednesday, March 15.
This departed for Pahiatua at 5am on the following day and arrived at our Mangamutu base about 8.30am. The cranes were already in position for a joint lift and unloading was completed about 9.30am.
RM31 was then test-run in the yard and appears to be undamaged, before being put away in its shed.
This is not the first time we have transferred railcars and other large items by road. Over 30 years we did so at least 10 times to or from places like Whangārei, Auckland Airport, Waitomo Caves, Silverstream and now Napier, along with other large equipment.
We are fortunate to have a pool of suitably experienced members and contractors to call on for this.
