WAIMEA PLAINS RAILWAY - after more than 140 years this historic steam locomotive still puffs along.

[@brycenew]

Terrific video Gordon!! Thank you! What an incredible tribute to all who assisted & supported this restoration. Terrific to see. As is the design and style of K92, particularly compared with NZ’s later steam locos.

[@garyadams9016]

Magnificent!

[@tubeflair]

Lovely pictures and video. Well done!

[@VJnGMH]

Loved your video and narration of this unique engine and the location. I noticed a set of points the have three road’s converging on one set of points. How does the work. I can’t visualise how that would operate. Would you have a video on that ? Regards vic.

[@garryferrington811]

You pulled that out of a river?!

[@GORDONLAWRENCEVIDEOS]

No I didn't pull it out but a team of local volunteers did. a very impressive effort. I think perhaps four locomotives have been rescued. Two are on display in Lumsden Railway Heritage Area in their unrestored state. They show what a tremendous effort has been made to get the Waimea Plains locomotive into working order.

[@Terrys-Steam-and-Bricks]

Loveky

[@joscallinet6260]

What SHOULD have been done is make a video showing all the work that was done to transform this mud-covered wreck, which was salvaged from the bottom of the river into which it had been unceremoniously dumped so many years ago, into the beautiful, working steam locomotive we see here! My educated guess is that the beautiful locomotive in this video was ACTUALLY recreated using MEASUREMENTS taken from the submerged wreck and, using these measurements, a brand-new REPLICA of that locomotive was built. I find it very hard to believe that the wreck ITSELF could have been re-used - it appeared to be far too corroded and wasted away to serve as anything more than a PATTERN or GUIDE to use to design and build a brand-new locomotive. Old photographs, as well as engineering drawings and blueprints from the Rogers factory itself, if any have been preserved, must have been heavily relied on as well.. If you can, please clarify to us viewers what was ACTUALLY done. Thank you. My comments notwithstanding, the locomotive shown in the video represents a LOT of patience, determination, craftsmanship and hard work - not to mention, a substantial financial investment!

[@GORDONLAWRENCEVIDEOS]

Interesting questions and comments, thank you. There may well have been a video made of the recovery, certainly newpsper photos. I live over 1000km away so was not around for the recovery. However, I am certain that this is to a large extent the original locomotive. The rust shots I included are from another two locos which were recovereed and now stand in their recovered condition in the Lumsden Railway Heritage area anout 50km from Waimea Plains railway. A second restored Rogers loco from the same source runs at the Plains Museum in Ashburton and while i have seen it in the shed, my visits have only coincided with a historic Railcar running. www.waimeaplainsrailway.co.nz/rogers-K92 You will find the section of the Waimea Plains webpage dealing with the loco. They also have a facebook page and I am sure that a query there would give a full answer.

[@GORDONLAWRENCEVIDEOS]

www.plainsrailway.co.nz/stock?page=locos This page gives a more detailed account of the resoration of K88 at Plains Railway. I assume this is similar to the Waimea story.

[@zanegracie39]

K 92 is indeed the original locomotive that was dumped into the Oreti River to halt riverbank erosion, K 88 was also retrieved from the same river back in 1974, K 92 was actually restored by the Fiordland Vintage Machinery Group who had planned to create a tourist railway which unfortunately didn't go ahead, K 92 was sold on and purchased by Colin Smith who runs the Croydon Aviation museum and actually restores vintage aircraft.

[@thebrantfordrailfan]

It's the original engine, not a recreation. You would be surprised what can be restored, steam locomotives are sturdy machines! And can take a LOT of abuse and deterioration and still be restorable