Our first complete locomotive -Tr189 - arrived at Maymorn on Friday 30th July 2010. The locomotive will be used for shunting and track construction work at Maymorn, and will play a key role in future reinstatement of the Rimutaka Incline Railway.
Tr189 was one of nine 20-tonne shunting locomotives built to this design at the New Zealand Railways Hillside Workshops in Dunedin during the 1970s. It was renumbered 937 in 1979, and was repainted with the 'fruit salad' livery midway through its working life. Working in the Manawatu for much of its life, it had been stored out of service in Wellington for over a year before being purchased by the Trust.
Commissioning work has now been completed on our Hillside Workshops-built shunting locomotive Tr189. Photographs from the second day of commissioning tests - 9 March 2013 follow. Thanks to all involved, including Rotary Club of Upper Hutt for a substantial donation towards the purchase of the locomotive from KiwiRail, and Trust members who funded and brought the locomotive back into service.
After a lot of hard work by our volunteers the Gardner 6LX diesel engine roared back to life on Saturday 6 October 2012. A long list of tasks had been worked through to get the engine ready for testing, including electrical systems, water pump, manifold, filters and oil system checks.