Community
The Lumsden Heritage Trust has brought a historic steam locomotive back to Southland, where it will enhance the trust’s already impressive heritage rail display in the northern Southland town.
The 19th century D Class locomotive D6 arrived on Saturday morning at Bulleid Engineering, in Winton, where it will be restored before being taken to Lumsden. It was transported by Southland Machine Hire and lifted off the truck by Smith Crane and Construction.
Trust chair John Titter says the locomotive is significant because there are very few left in New Zealand.
“According to the New Zealand Rolling Stock Register there are only seven other Class D locomotives left in New Zealand, of which only two have been restored to running order,” Mr Titter says.
D6 was built in 1880 by Neilson & Co, in Glasgow, and was in service with New Zealand Railways until 1917, running for much of its time on Southland tracks. After going into private service for another 48 years it was acquired in 1965 by Ocean Beach Railway, a working heritage railway museum operating in Dunedin. The locomotive has been stored there ever since.
The Lumsden Heritage Trust has come to an arrangement with Ocean Beach Railway to take responsibility for the locomotive, and has applied for funding to restore it to its former glory.
Coincidentally, Bulleid Engineering, in Lindsay Street, is next to the former Winton railway track that linked to the important Kingston line until the Winton section was closed in December 1982. D6 operated on this very track when it was in service with New Zealand Railways in Southland.
In 1917, New Zealand Railways sold D6 to the Taratu Coal and Railway Company at Lovells Flat, in the Clutha district. In 1940 it was sold again to McDonalds Lime, which put it into action at its Oamaru plant, where it remained in use until it was acquired in 1965 by Ocean Beach Railway.
The D6 restoration and preservation project continues an eventful two years for the Lumsden Heritage Trust, which oversaw the recovery of two V Class locomotives and their coal tenders from the mud at Mararoa Junction near Lumsden in early 2020, then recovered the A Class passenger car A199 from a farm at Wairio later that year. The newly refurbished A199 now sits in the Lumsden Railway Precinct where it will serve as an information kiosk for the trust’s static display.