Steam Incorporated

Steam Incorporated, often abbreviated to Steam Inc., is a railway heritage and preservation society based in Paekakariki at the southern end of the Kapiti Coast, approximately 50 minutes north of Wellington on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Unlike some societies who operate on preserved sections of closed branch lines (e.g. the Kingston Flyer on the Kingston Branch or the Pleasant Point Museum and Railway on the Fairlie Branch), Steam Incorporated own a depot ("The Engine Shed") beside one of the country's most important railway lines, the North Island Main Trunk Railway, and restore heritage locomotives and rolling stock for use on excursions on the regular national rail network. Steam Incorporated is also a major sponsor of the Paekakariki Station Precinct Trust, and beyond Paekakariki, it has offered assistance to SteamRail Wanganui.

History of the depot

Paekakariki's close association with the railway began in 1886 when the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company's line from Wellington to Longburn opened. A sizeable station was established in Paekakariki despite the settlement's small size, as it was ideally located as a locomotive changeover point - powerful engines were required to tackle the difficult grades between Wellington and Paekakariki, while lighter and more nimble ones were better suited to the gentle grades and straight track through the Kapiti Coast and Horowhenua to Manawatu. The New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) took over the Wellington and Manawatu Railway in December 1908, but Paekakariki's status as an important depot remained unchanged. In 1940, the line from Wellington to Paekakariki was electrified and Paekakariki's depot was altered: it became the changeover point from electric to steam motive power, or electric to diesel from the 1950s onwards.

In the late 1960s, the locomotive depot in Paekakariki was closed and the main engine shed demolished as services were restructured and rationalised. However, some facilities were left, and in 1972, Steam Incorporated was formed and took over the old depot site between the North Island Main Trunk to the west and State Highway 1 to the east. Since this time, the depot's facilities and trackage have been upgraded and expanded to handle a growing amount of equipment and it contains over one kilometre of track, including a turntable.

Locomotives

Steam Incorporated's name reveals its focus on the preservation of steam locomotives, but it also possesses diesel locomotives. Its fleet includes:

* A^B 608 (currently undergoing overhaul)
* DA 1410 (operational, leased to Railway Enthusiasts Society)
* DA 1431 (operational, leased to Railway Enthusiasts Society)
* DS 202 (operational)
* ORB No.2 (operational, similar to the NZR DSB class)
* J 1234 (out of use, leased to Railway Enthusiasts Society)
* J^A 1271 (operational)
* K 917 (unrestored, in storage)
* K^A 945 (currently undergoing overhaul)

Rolling stock

Steam Incorporated owns one of New Zealand's largest fleets of heritage passenger carriages certified for mainline operation on the regular national network. Originally painted in a unique chocolate brown livery with yellow lining to differentiate them from carriages in service on regular trains, the paint was found to fade and look shabby, and when Tranz Rail, NZR's successor, repainted their carriages in a blue livery in the early 1990s, Steam Incorporated reverted to the "Midland Red" paint scheme that had been used for most passenger carriages in New Zealand since the 1920s. Along with those wagons certified for mainline operation, the society also possesses some under restoration and others currently unrestored.

A selection of non-passenger heritage rolling stock is also based at the Paekakariki depot. This includes guard's vans, luggage wagons, and freight wagons, some of which are used on excursions to carry extra fuel and water for the locomotive.

Excursions

Steam Incorporated has operated or participated in excursions to almost all parts of the national railway network that has been open since the mid-1980s. During the early years of the society's existence, NZR would not permit heritage operators to use the national network, thus limiting the society's activities to the area of The Engine Shed, but since 1985, this policy has been abandoned. Popular excursions have been through the central North Island, annual "Art Deco" expresses to Napier, and to the centennial celebrations at Dunedin Railway Station in 2006. Some excursions are operated solely by Steam Incorporated crews with the society's own equipment, while others have been in conjunction with other New Zealand preservation societies and their locomotives, such as the "double drivers" excursions featuring two K^A class locomotives.

External links

* [http://www.steaminc.org.nz/ Official website of Steam Incorporated]