Specifications

2-6-2T Wheel arrangement

36.7Tons.

Estimated H.P.400.

Tractive Force 13420 lbs.

Water Capacity 850 Gals.

Grate Area 11Sq Ft.

14inch Bore-20inch Stroke.

Operating Pressure 170lbs per sq inch.

Coal Bunker Capacity 1 ¾ Tons.

Wheels size 36¾-Inch Diameter.

The Restoration of  WA 165

Gisborne April 1986, Wa 165 was moved from Young Nicks Playground (it had been on static display) to M.E. Jukes & Son yard where the dismantling and cleaning began.

In October 1988 all the parts where moved to a permanent home, the old N.Z.R. Workshop, Customhouse Street.

All parts that were removed were cleaned after being soaked in drums of kerosene, repaired, labelled and stored for re-assembling. The frame was sent to a local firm to be sandblasted and primer painted.

Wheels sent to A & G Price, Thames to have the journals reground and the leading axle coupling rod pins replaced.  The tyres were turned by N.Z.R. Auckland, but to our horror they arrived back different sizes, so they went to N.Z.R. Hutt Workshops to have new tyres pressed on and the new profiles turned. Once the wheels arrived back, new brass sideliners where cast for the axle boxes and machined these up to size.

The springs also went to N.Z.R. Auckland, disaster again with the wheels finally being sent to Christchurch for a complete overhaul.  New pins and hangers were made in house.

The slide bars were just off condemning size and as Wa 165 has only one slide bar each side new one were made by an Engineering firm in Rotorua.

The boiler had to be replaced, the biggest challenge Wa 165’s Project Engineer had.  Although the old boiler could have been repaired according to the N.Z.R. Boiler Inspector, with new regulations and the Inspections to be handled by Marine Department the Committee decided to have a new boiler designed and built.  A new all welded steel boiler was designed under the BS2790, part 1, 1969 code by the Project Engineer.  A Civil Engineer checked the drawings before the drawings were sent to the Marine & Inspection Services for approval.

When the drawings were finally approved, the tender was put out and was won by Dispatch Engineering of Greymouth. After numerous trips to Greymouth the boiler was completed in June 1993. With the new boiler in our workshops we made a new ash pan, smokebox and grate, finally fitting the whole unit to the frame.

New side tanks, coalbunker and cab were made using the old badly eaten away ones as patterns. 

With only a few of the original boiler fittings left on the old boiler, new fittings had to be either manufactured or cast.  These fittings were finally machined on site when we were able to buy an old lathe. Before this 90% of the machining had been done by the Project Engineer in his home workshop.

Babcock’s in Auckland made new encentric rods and connecting rods.  New brasses for the coupling rods were made by A & G Price, Thames.  A new blast pipe was cast and new air tanks made in Palmerston North. 

The compressor was pulled down and the main shaft renewed. New sleeve and shuttle rings for the top head where fitted.

The generator was also dismantled, a new shaft made and new field coils wound.

The chimney was passed its used by date, fortunately one was seen in the grass at Silverstream Railway Wellington, by a member , a very lucky find.

After setting all valves and many hours consulting old NZR Plans, Wa 165 was able to be fired up under its own steam end of 1997.

Many hours of paper work, testing by the Trans Rail Engineers, and readjusting and Wa 165 was finally given approval to run at the end of 1999.

With more paper work required and getting carriages ready it was not until Labour Weekend 2000 that Wa 165 was able to leave the Gisborne Railway Station with fare paying passengers.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF Wa 165

Of the six Wa class locomotives that were based in Gisborne between 1910 and 1942, No. 165 was a true Gisbornite.  Wa 165 was born in the N.Z.R. workshops at Hillside, Dunedin in 1897 and was the first locomotive to be built in these shops.  It was put into service in March, 1898 and commenced work at Wellington April 1898, transferred to Palmerston North depot in 1899 and then to Taihape in 1910.  In early 1911 it went to Petone workshops for an overhaul prior to being shipped to Gisborne in July, 1911.  This  locomotive remained in the Gisborne section until the line south was opened in 1942, then transferred to the Napier depot but continued to appear in Gisborne from time to time on shunting duties.  In 1943 Wa 165 went to the Hutt shops for her last “A” class overhaul, and in 1946 was on the move again, being transferred to the Frankton depot.

In 1949 during her working career in the centre of the North Island, Wa 165 carried out shunting duties at Putaruru, Huntly and Te Kuiti, then between 1951 and 1952 was on loan to the Mines Department at Rotowaro while their locomotive went through A and G Prices’s workshops for an overhaul.  For the next few years it carried out general shunting duties around Frankton until in 1957 when in  semi-retirement, the aging loco was confined to the daily coal shunt between 4pm and 6pm.

It was withdrawn from service in 1959.  On 25 August 1961, Wa 165 was finally written off the N.Z.R. books although it had been sold to the Gisborne Junior Chamber of Commerce in May of that year. 

Back Home Again

It was during 1960 that the Gisborne Junior Chamber of Commerce discovered Wa 165 slowly decaying on a railway siding at Frankton, better known as “Rotten Row”.  As it had spent 31 of its 62 years on the old Motuhora line, they considered it only befitting that it be returned to Gisborne as a stationary exhibit.

The locomotive was purchased from the N.Z. Railways for the sum of two hundred pounds, which was its scrap value at the time.  Raising that sum of money was not a simple task for the group, but on the 3rd March 1961 a deposit of fifty pounds was handed over to the Gisborne Stationmaster to secure the locomotive, with the final payment made 10th May, 1961.

During the time that negotiations were taking place, Wa 165 had been cleaned up with a steam hose, all axles and bearings oiled and greased, connection and eccentric road removed (necessary when running a dead engine) and prepared for the 497 mile journey back to Gisborne.  The veteran Wa class 2-6-2T locomotive No. 165 arrived back in Gisborne midday on the 26th May, 1961 having travelled from Frankton to Palmerston North, Napier, then on to Gisborne.  It was cleaned up and put on display at the Gisborne Industries Fair in mid June of that year.

The loco sat on an unused piece of track in the Railways demolition yard during the fair and attracted a lot of attention from the young and not so young.  The “demolition yard” was so named because a lot of the rails and sleepers, bridge spans and other materials salvaged from the now defunct Gisborne-Motuhora line were stored there waiting disposal.  It was quite ironic that Wa 165 should be parked in the same yard containing the now disused road that she steamed over in her heyday.

From the time it was mooted to bring the locomotive back to Gisborne, the City Council agreed to make a site available for the veteran, but the final resting place was a debatable issue between the Council and the “Jaycee’s”.  After 12 months of deliberation a piece of land was offered on the “Alfred Cox Park”, this was accepted, Wa 165 rested here for 6 years.  In 1968 Wa 165 was again moved to “Young Nicks Playground” in Awapuni Road, a site not far from the Beach and the salt air.  Wa 165 sat here for 18years slowly rusting away.

During these times groups from outside Gisborne were interested in taking her away but the City Council turned these requests down, as by this time Wa 165 was the sole survivor of its class in N.Z. out of eleven that were built between 1892 and 1903.

 October 1985 a group of Rail Enthusiasts got together and formed a society with the aim of rebuilding Wa 165 to its 1898 condition, if not better.

April the 19th 1986 a very rusting Wa 165 was again moved, this time to be rebuilt to her former Glory.