Mainline Steam Heritage Trust new depot project at Mercer

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1 Mainline Steam Heritage Trust new depot project at Mercer Background: Mainline Steam Heritage Trust was set up by Mr Ian Welch in the late 1970 s with the express purpose of ensuring that steam hauled excursions continued to operate on the main line network in New Zealand. A number of surplus locomotives were saved from the scrapper s torch and the trust was registered as a charitable trust. Today MSHT has a depot in Plimmerton and another in Christchurch. There are 7 locomotives available for service and these are continuously maintained in operative condition. The full collection includes many more locomotives and enough rolling stock to keep a train at each depot. Timeline to Mercer: MSHT had a depot in Auckland housed in the ex NZR diesel depot in Parnell. In the early 2000 s it became apparent that this would soon become unavailable and a new home would need to be found for the Auckland collection. Ja1275 at Parnell depot (Mainline Steam photo) Mainline investigated a number of possible locations: Helensville 2012 investigated found to have shortcomings. Ranui 2012 restricted site for train handling. Opaheke 2013/4 - got the project over the line through the AC OPW process. Unfortunately the final design had a number of shortcomings with space and train handling. Glenbrook 2014/15 Thoroughly explored the possibilities at Glenbrook but again a number of issues arose which would have created operational difficulties and increased costs. Mercer 2016 contacted the owner of a block alongside the old Mercer railway station site. This was Jeanette Thomas. Jeanette was hugely supportive from the start, recognizing the historical significance and the value of the project to the Mercer and wider Waikato communities. At a subsequent meeting with locals gathered to form a Citizens and Ratepayers Association we had immense support from all sections of the community including iwi. This support has never wavered.

2 History of Mercer:

3 Mercer 1964 (Whites Aviation photo) Mercer station 1959 (WW Stewart photo) Proposal: After some concept development it was clear that we only need around 4Ha of the 12 Ha block. Historically this block had access from a dedicated road past the station. Properties on this road were predominantly for railway houses. In the early 1940 s Railways decided to build a triangle at Mercer as the existing turntable was too short for the largest locomotives (the K class). This resulted in a compulsory purchase under the public works act and the road access to the separate lot was cut off. This was not an issue at the time as the block of land was owned by the same person who owned the next block over. The separate titles remained and Jeanette purchased them together. When it was decided to realign the boundary between the two lots this was done to ensure that Mainline would own as much land as was needed leaving Jeanette with enough land to maintain a viable operation. This has led to the application now before council to realign boundaries.

4 Proposed new lot boundaries Development looking North Ground level view of roundhouse museum.

5 Render of museum development showing potential lighting Proposed depot development Locomotive Depot

6 The new depot will have a 70mx32m shed to house the excursion train and the maintenance operation. There will be a back shunt to assemble excursion trains and a turntable. The intention is to build a roundhouse as a museum. A roundhouse is a traditional locomotive depot of which there were three in New Zealand none of which survive. Below is a photo of the original roundhouse at Elmer Lane, Greymouth the largest and the most modern built in It had 18 roads the Mainline roundhouse will have 16 roads. There has been a thorough assessment of the effects of this kind of depot which was presented to Auckland Council for the OPW process at Opaheke. The same effects could be expected here and the conclusion of the Auckland Council Planning Department, special projects division was that the effects were minor. Pete van Grinsven, CPEng Project Leader Mainline Steam Heritage Trust