Antics At The Old Hastings Railway Station

September 8, 2009

Warwick sent in this amusing story from his days growing up in Hastings New Zealand:

This particular bunch of railway memories are from my days as a Dominion Newspaper paper boy approximately 50 years ago.

Our depot was right across the road from the old Hastings Station and yards and as we often had time to kill whilst waiting for the morning paper car to arrive it was a natural playground for us all.

Many are the antics we got up to which would horrify the Politically Correct Brigade of today!

A favourite pastime was to let the brake off empty 4-wheel open wagons and all push hard to get it rolling then jump aboard and ride it until it ran out of momentum or came up against other rolling stock or a concrete buffer block.

Another caper we used to enjoy was all riding down the platform on one of the postoffice mail trolleys, which had two wheels in the middle and one at either end making them impossible to steer if everybody was on board! This came to an end when an out of control trolley careered onto the tracks, braking an axle in the process. I remember our meagre pay being docked until the cost of repairs by the postoffice were met!

Other pleasant memories include having a sausage cooked for me in the cab of an AB loco by a kindly fireman on his shovel in the firebox, placing pennies on the track for oncoming trains to flatten and listening for trains still out of sight by placing ones ear on one of the rails.

Perhaps the best rail memory of the time was watching the annual Blossom Trains arriving. They came from Wellington with hoards of passengers up for the weekend and were hauled by two J or K class locos.

By looking south down the tracks the vast cloud of steam and smoke could be seen long before the train itself came into view.Their arrival was very spectacular as they came charging in, not slowing until the engines and some of the carriages were well past the station and over the next railway crossing. This they had to do due to the sheer length of the train.

A real cross section of society came up on the blossom specials and it was an eye-opener to us relatively small-town boys to see the sort of people getting off the train .

Sadly we all have to grow up. They pulled down the grand old wooden station building to be replaced further up the track with a small characterless modern building. Also they moved the shunting yards further out of town and eventually the Special Blossom Festival Trains were discontinued. Good fun while it lasted though………