How’s this for an interesting glimpse into history…

While I was in Takaka before Xmas, I took this photo of whats left of the old wharf at Puponga…
The tide was fairly low and the water was luke warm…

I didn’t think too much more about it, but when I got the film developed and scanned I thought I’d do a search and see what the old wharf looked like back in the day… And I found this photo, with a steam engine on the wharf!! photo credit here

Based on the remnants of the wharf I wouldn’t have thought it was big enough for a steam train, which weigh a lot!! So I did some more searches and sure enough there was a railway line out on the wharf! photo credit here

Wow!
So it turns out there was a coal mine inland from Puponga, and they used a train to take the coal to ships… But how big was this train? This big:

Ahar! That explains it – it was some small gauge train. Turns out the trains name is DONALD (no not that Donald – its not orange!) and it has been fully restored and now is in a steam train museum in Blenheim. More info here

“Donald’s rolling stock consisted of two types, side tipping wagons each with a one ton capacity for use on the main line between mine and wharf, and tippler discharge wagons or mine tubs each with a half ton capacity, which brought coal from the working face to screens in the mine itself.”