Greetings and Salutations to all.

Yesterday, I was down on my home turf in South Canterbury. I had gone there to have some time at the Caroline Bay Carnival in Timaru. The carnival runs for about two weeks in the Christmas/New Year holiday season and I try to visit at least once during that time. This time, I had a particular interest in three of the rides. The Merry Go Round, the Ferris Wheel and the Octopus. These rides have being going longer than my sixty eight years by quite a margin and I was after pictures of the Merry Go Round in particular. In the early afternoon there is entertainment at the Sound Shell, an outdoor amphitheatre, which I also like to take in.

Having explained my reason for the journey, let’s get to the reason for this particular Flugel. On the way home, I deviated inland about 15 minutes to Pleasant Point. A country district with which I have strong associations. There, they have the Pleasant Point Railway and Museum. Thr railway has a run I’d guess to be about 2Km in length. It runs alongside the main road, heading inland to the township itself.

I could go on at great length about the story behind this railway and the multitude of attractions that go with it, but that’s not why I am here. Suffice to say, that the presentation is definitely world class. They have a website which will tell you much more than I can. Go to, WWW. Pleasant Point Museum and Railway

I called in because I can almost guarantee at any time, there will be at least one person there who I will know from my past and I of course have a great interest in what is going on there. So I called in and went into the workshop, where having announced who I was, found a gas torch in my hand and we were making an eye bolt. During this process, a voice boomed out from behind me “Hello Mr. Flugel!” Good friend and fellow editor Mark Denne had found me. Mark took me under his wing and gave me the grand tour. There’s something about volunteer societies, that makes all fellow people so welcome. You’d have thought Mark had nothing better to do with his day than show me about. In this process, I got to have a look at their ‘D’ class locomotive which is down for repairs. Readers who have followed these notes for some time will know that Ferrymead has ‘D140’ and here they have ‘D16’. The ‘D’ and the ‘F’ class engines are very similar. The ‘F’ being an 0-6-0 saddletank and the ‘D’ a 2-6-0 side tank. Many of the leading dimensions are either similar or the same. I was interested to see the work being done on the valve gear. Most of the pins have been renewed into reamed holes and even more interesting they had made new eccentric sheaves and liners for the straps.

The tanks and the cab for the ‘D’ in fact. Along with many fittings. Of more particular note is the wagon. An ‘M’. Something like a low sided ‘L’. Looking at our rolling stock list, I see we have an ‘Mc’ which Sir Colin says is a lowsided steel wagon. So Pleasant Point have something we don’t. That’s all to the good. Even more to the point on that subject, they have a Genuine Ford Model T railcar. A ‘drawing accurate’ recreation of one of two that ran in the lower South Island. You really must check out the website to see this and so much more about this splendid railway. I was absolutely burned up to find out I’d used up all the memory card in the camera and there was ever so much more I wanted to picture. I will be there again, make no mistake! I wanted to show you their ‘Tr14’ which is essentially the same as our ‘Tr22’, but this one has been retrofitted with air braking. I had a drive of it and I can tell you, it is a real delight to use. My thanks again to Mark Denne for that.

So I had a really excellent time during my visit. I spoke with most who were there and it was indeed a pleasure to be able to do so.

Now it really is time for morning tea! Cheers, ‘K’.