Kawakawa steam engineer Mike “The Train” Bradshaw makes some adjustments to the vintage steam locomotive Gabriel, which is set to make a long-awaited return this weekend. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Kawakawa steam engineer Mike “The Train” Bradshaw makes some adjustments to the vintage steam locomotive Gabriel, which is set to make a long-awaited return this weekend. Photo / Peter de Graaf
For a while it seemed Northland’s favourite locomotive might never run again.
Gabriel, a 1926 steam locomotive, was holed up in a shed with a boiler that had come to the end of its life and an impossible bill for a replacement.
Salvation came in 2020 in the form of a grant from the government’s Provincial Growth Fund, which paid for work on the historic Kawakawa-Ōpua railway track, a new engineering shed and training buildings — and a new boiler for Gabriel.
The mammoth job of rebuilding the vintage locomotive is now almost complete.
While the 97-year-old engine isn’t quite ready for passengers, it will be puffing up and down Kawakawa’s rail yard during Anniversary Weekend’s Market at the Station this Saturday and Sunday.
It’s a huge milestone for Bay of Islands Vintage Railway Trust engineer Mike “The Train” Bradshaw.
The 85-year-old volunteer has spent a third of his life working on Gabriel but feared he’d never see it steamed up again.
The new boiler was built by Kawerau Engineering to exactly the same dimensions as the original 1927 version, except that it was welded rather than riveted.
That meant every single pipe and fitting had to be re-engineered or replaced to make it fit the welded boiler, a process that took Bradshaw and a small team of volunteers from Whangārei, Kawakawa and Kerikeri almost two years.
By contrast, making the boiler took only four months.
Bradshaw said only one new component was needed before Gabriel could pull passenger wagons again.
“I’m delighted. A third of my life has been spent working on it, and I didn’t think we’d ever get it running again. It was only possible because we managed to get funding from the PGF — otherwise it would have ended up on a plinth for children to play on.”
Gabriel’s new boiler arrives in Kawakawa after a long trip by truck from Kawerau Engineering. Photo / Supplied
Bradshaw said Gabriel was one of five “marvellous little engines” built in 1910-27 by Peckett and Sons in Bristol.
Two went to Ireland, where they were used on the Schull and Skibbereen Railway in County Cork, while two were bought by “Rajah” Brooke to haul timber out of the forests of Borneo.
All four were cut up for scrap around World War II, which meant Gabriel was now unique.
It was built in 1926 to haul cement along the wharf at Portland Cement in Whangārei.
The new boiler, built by Kawerau Engineering, is lowered carefully into place on Gabriel’s stripped-back chassis. Photo / Supplied
By 1984 Gabriel was no longer being used so Bradshaw was able to lease it.
When Portland Cement was sold to Fletcher’s in 1988, Bradshaw was given two days to buy it or it would also be cut up for scrap.
He talked a bank into lending him $5000 and the rest is history — or was, until Gabriel’s ageing boiler finally failed its 10-yearly inspection in 2016. At that time the cost of a new boiler was estimated to be $200,000.
Kawakawa steam engineer Mike “The Train” Bradshaw in the cab of the newly restored 1926 locomotive Gabriel. Photo / Peter de Graaf
More than 15 stallholders selling food, taonga and crafts will take part in the Market at the Station on January 28-29.
Trains will leave as usual for Long Bridge at 10am, noon and 2pm, while Gabriel will be steamed up for tests of its injectors, air pumps and fittings from about 9am on both days.
Cyclists can load their bikes onto the train for the trip to Te Akeake, from where they can ride the rest of the way to Ōpua on the Pou Herenga Tai Twin Coast Cycle Trail.
