KATE NEWTON
For the last 15 years, locomotive crew member Alister Buckingham has been oiling and greasing, polishing and perfecting his pride-and-joy locomotive only to hand it over to a driver before it rolls out of the station.
But "them's the breaks", he says.
"It's just a joy seeing her back on the
main line." The steam train is back in Hawke's Bay for the earthquake commemorations and Art Deco celebrations and will be doing excursions from Hastings today and Napier tomorrow.
"At the moment, it's running like a sewing machine," Alister said.
For passengers, it's a chance to relive the past, in keeping with the art deco theme and an opportunity to experience the sights, sounds and smells of a steam train.
Driver Ross Allen, from Palmerston North, has 43 years' experience on trains and travels to Hawke's Bay annually on the locomotive.
"It's stinking hot here. There are no windmills to keep us cool," Ross said.
As long as the annual medical tests let him, Ross said he will be driving trains.
"That's the trouble; today I can be an engine driver but tomorrow I could be a medical outcast," he said.
At 60, Ross is just hoping to get another five years on the track.
Built in 1956, the locomotive spent most of its early life in the South Island until Steam Incorporated, a Paekakariki business, bought it derelict.
It took 20 years and $400,000 to get the locomotive back in service in 1997 and it is now the only one of its kind left.
Its carriages are also vintage, with one dating back to 1910.
The steam train arrived in Napier last night and is spending today taking passengers on excursions from Hastings to Awatoto and back.
The train leaves the station at 9.30am, 11.30am and 1.30pm.
Tomorrow, the ride will be from the Napier station to Eskdale and back, leaving at 9am, 12 noon and 3pm.
* Quake stamps released - page 5
