His supervisor, Kevin Hawkins, said he was an invaluable source of knowledge for younger workers but also remained a sprightly hands-on worker, always ready to help with challenging physical tasks such as changing wagon bogeys.
Mr Jones, whose father was a railways engineer and whose own three sons followed him into the industry, was relieved to get back into overalls after wearing a collar and tie for 20 years as the upper North Island's senior inspector of passenger cars and freight wagons.
He began work in 1943 when the railways were short-handed after the secondment of many workers to the war effort, running supplies to front-line troops across North Africa.
"At 16 you were expected to start work and I was 15 coming up to 16," he said.
"I don't owe railways anything, but they don't owe me either, it's a two-way deal.
"I brought up three children, they're well-educated, my wife was never short of money."
Mr Jones and his late wife, Valerie, were honeymooning in New Plymouth when word came through on Christmas Day 1953 that the Wellington-Auckland night express train had been swept by a volcanic lahar into the flooded Whangaehu River at Tangiwai the night before, killing 151 people.
They cut short their holiday, driving home to Auckland to leave room for grieving relatives scouring the central North Island for scarce accommodation.
"It was quite despairing - it devastated the country," he said.
• The first locomotive-hauled passenger train began service between Ferrymead and Christchurch on December 1, 1863. KiwiRail is celebrating the 150th anniversary of that event with a travelling exhibition of scenic carriages and themed carriages on display at the Strand station off Beach Rd in Auckland on Sunday. For more details, see www.150yearsrail.org.nz
