You can’t beat the sound of the old steam trains of yesteryears nor the smell of burnt coal & steam! As a teenager I remember travelling each morning from Otahuhu into Auckland central by steam train to attend classes for my apprenticeship & returning at the completion of the days classes ! Going through the tunnel around the bays was just awesome with our carriage filling up with black smoke as some chaps decided to open all the windows! Our clothes stank but it was a good smell! I miss the old steam trains
Well done, Geoff. As an old-time member of Steam Inc., this video captures the atmosphere of big steam on the main line and brings back so many nostalgic memories for me!
As younger kids a friend of mine, we both decided to paint the railway lines either side up an incline just south of Hawera as we somehow knew when the freight train was due to come around the bend. As youngsters we were pissing ourselves with laughter watching this train struggling to get up this incline while pulling a load of heavy carriages behind it! It had to back down & have another crack at reaching the top, but unfortunately it didn’t! Then it backed down once again this time dropping sand onto the tracks to give it more traction! Us two were hiding in the lupins either side of the tracks pissing ourselves! Had our fathers knew what we had both done, they would have kicked our arses to kingdom come & we wouldn’t have been able to sit down for weeks!
If you know steam locos well the sound doesn't match the footage.(probably stock sound from Marlborough Flyer ops. ) The Da was shut down at the back of the train. (i was in said shut down Da asleep lol)
