The railway Updated Photo galleries Updated
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2009 visit The track at Mana Ariki Marae is privately owned and operated but once per year other model engineering clubs are invited to run there. Mana Ariki is just north of Taumarunui on New Zealand's north island and as part of the attractions there is one of the longest 7¼" gauge lines in the southern hemisphere. John Bremner and I rushed to get POEM ready for her first run after the rebuild and only finished with hours to spare. As we were busy tending to POEM I didn't get the opportunity to spend much time taking photos of the line and I therefore asked Ben Sewell if he had any photos I could use on the site. There are two tracks at the Marae, a low-level figure-eight of about 500m length and the high-level, hill track of nearly 3km. As we were test running POEM we only ran on the lower level but later we got a trip on the high-level track behind one of the resident diesel-electrics. The loco shed and steaming bays at Mana Ariki are well laid out and you can drive up to several different tracks for unloading. This meant that once we turned up we could leave the trailer lined up for later. We encountered a few problems with POEM which are now being addressed but the track at Mana Ariki is well worth a visit.
A Phantom and Thomas waiting in the main station
One of the resident diesels
Ben driving one of the diesels out of the main station
John Bremner at the controls of POEM with me looking on
Me driving POEM in to the main station
Ben Sewell in Dave Giles' Shay at the upper station
The locoshed was a hive of activity |
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23rd March 2009
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