Laraine Sole holds up her 35th book, East Town Railway Workshops. Proceeds are being donated to SteamRail Wanganui Inc.
Laraine Sole holds up her 35th book, East Town Railway Workshops. Proceeds are being donated to SteamRail Wanganui Inc.
“East Town Railway Workshops” is Laraine Sole’s 35th book. The book chronicles, by decades, the important part the workshops - together with New Zealand Railways - played in New Zealand history.
There are 200 photographs in the book, which is 256 pages - a good size to hold. On the cover is a photograph supplied to Laraine by Malver Shomark of ‘Meg Merrilies’, a locomotive assembled on the river banks of the Whanganui River in East Town in 1875.
It helped build the line to Turakina, went around the country, and returned to East Town in the 1950s, where it was refurbished to be used as a shunter. It is now at Motat in Auckland, in full running order.
Blair Jordan, president of SteamRail Wanganui Inc., sitting on a motor trolley.
Laraine’s first book was the history of Waverley and set a course for most of her other books which were about local history. Her next book will be about Whanganui East.
The official launch of the book will be on Saturday, July 8, 10.30am at the Whanganui East Club. It will be on sale there and will also be available through SteamRail Wanganui Inc. and Paige’s Bookshop.
“East Town Railway Workshops was a massive employer in its days,” said Laraine. “No other books have been written about it.
“Because the Whanganui community has been so supportive of me, I thought I’d like to put the money from the book into something that’s preserving steam history in Whanganui. SteamRail Wanganui Inc. was the right organisation and all the proceeds from the sale of the book will go to them.
“Everyone I approached was so generous with their time. I asked Graeme Carter first, as he is a railway expert in Whanganui. He was incredibly helpful. Everybody knows somebody who worked in the workshops.
“I used to work with Alex Baumanis. His father, George, also worked at East Town Railway Workshops. He’d been ‘squirrelling away’ newspaper clippings about East Town. When Alex handed these over to me, it opened up a new world, it was just amazing - especially post-1950.
“Between the period 1905 - 1966, all the Whanganui MPs had worked at East Town Workshops, plus a mayor and deputy-mayor, and four Olympic Gold Medallists.
“Every manager that left, spoke about the family atmosphere at East Town Railway Workshops. In your own mind, you can’t imagine how large those buildings were, and how noisy it must have been. Some of the buildings have gone now.
“While researching the book, I had to learn the language of the trade so I could ask the right questions,” said Laraine.
SteamRail shed at Taupo Quay, Whanganui.
■ SteamRail Wanganui Inc.
Blair Jordan, president of SteamRail Wanganui Inc., will be spearheading an Open Day at the Taupo Quay Railway Yards in Whanganui on Sunday, July 9, from 10am - 4pm. There will be copies of Laraine’s book on sale, with all proceeds going to SteamRail Wanganui Inc.
There will be motor trolley rides for the public.
Some of the vintage rolling stock on display will be carriages, a steam crane, and four shunters, one was built for the Imlay Freezing Works in 1964 (number 212) and another owned by Blair is number 210, both were built by Price in Thames.
Another shunter was built for Kempthorne Prosser & Co. Ltd, a Durie locomotive, later used by Ravensdown.
The steam crane, which can lift five tons, spent its life at East Town Railway Workshops, it is being restored, but the paperwork is being sought for its boiler to get certified. It was upgraded to a Pressman Coal Grab boiler.
