New Zealand's oldest working steam locomotive celebrates its 150th birthday

[ED75-775]

It's Labour Weekend here in New Zealand and yesterday in particular was very special for members of the Canterbury Railway Society who arranged a special Railfan Event Day to belatedly celebrate the 150th birthday of New Zealand's oldest working steam locomotive, F 13 'Peveril'.

 

 

Built by Neilson & Company of Glasgow in 1872 as their Works No. 1692, F 13 was shipped to Port Chalmers, near Dunedin aboard the Palmerston in late 1872. Its first trip in service, a trial run, took place on 16 May 1873 and from this point onwards worked in construction service on the Dunedin Section until it formally 'entered' revenue service on 20 December 1873. After this point the locomotive worked for a number of operators: Brogdens & Co. (1873-76), Public Works Department (1876-79 in revenue service; 1879-86 as construction plant), New Zealand Government Railways (1876-1964). By the time it was withdrawn from NZR service in October 1964 it was the oldest locomotive on the NZR's books at 92 years old!

 

Although originally built for what was then known as the Dunedin & Clutha Railway, F 13 actually spent much of its working life in the Canterbury district, finishing up its working life on the Lyttelton wharves near Christchurch as a shunter and occasionally steam-heating the coaches for the 'Steamer Express' that connected with the inter-island steamship service to Wellington. During the 1950s the locomotive received its current name, originally worn by a Yorkshire Engine Co.-built sister F 232, and has carried this name ever since instead of its original name Edie Ochiltree - both, of course being names from the novels of Sir Walter Scott.

 

 

To mark the weekend's festivities, F 13 and fellow Ferrymead resident 2-4-0T D 140 were joined by a third locomotive, D 16 from the Pleasant Point Railway & Historical Society in South Canterbury. All three were running yesterday, and will do so today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday) for the general public. Naturally though with a railfans' event, different things were tried - top and tailed D's for the first time since 1962 (Oamaru Centennial celebrations - coincidentally D 16 was one of the two engines involved), double-headed mixed train and finally a triple-header with F 13 on top of the D's just as the weather began to fine up. Phew!

 

 

All in all it was a great day out, and there was even some media interest from one of our 6PM news shows thanks to a press release that CRS president David Maciulaitis put out a few days before. Yours truly even got interviewed very briefly on the future of steam with alternative fuels - yes, we in little old New Zealand are keeping a weather eye on overseas developments in the hope we'll be able to keep running long into the future when coal is all but forbidden. Though admittedly, I am *not* yet a volunteer with CRS - although I do so with the Tramway Historical Society just over the fence!

 

While 'Peveril' is New Zealand's oldest working steam locomotive, it is not the oldest extant steam locomotive. That feat is currently disputed by two locomotives: ex-Dunedin & Port Chalmers Railway 0-4-4-0T Double Fairlie Josephine (Vulcan 637/1872) displayed at Toitū Otago Early Settlers Museum in Dunedin, and the remains of what is purported to be Chaplin 1182/1870, a vertical-boiler 0-4-0T originally built as a standard-gauge locomotive for the Bay of Islands Coal Company and now displayed incomplete at the East Coast Museum of Technology at Makaraka near Gisborne. Neither are likely to ever run again though, leaving F 13 the undisputed right of oldest in steam. Long may she do so!

 

Further information for the interested

• In the Beginning: The Story of the New Zealand Locomotive 1863-1877. Gerald Petrie, Locomotive Press 1996. Provides a lot of information into the early locomotives of New Zealand, drawn from national and provincial government files and newspaper reports of the time.
• Register of New Zealand Railways Steam Locomotives 1863-1971. W. G. Lloyd, Otago Railway & Locomotive Society and Triple M Publications, 2002. This is the official 'bible' of NZR locomotive numbers; it's now out of print, but secondhand copies do appear on the market from time to time.
• 'F 13 Back In Steam', Graeme McClare and Glen Anthony, New Zealand Railfan June 2015, Triple M Publications. This magazine is no longer in publication, but back copies can still be brought from one of the ex-publishers.