• Your Hosts:  Colin & Esma Stevenson.
     
  • Location:  Highway 57, Tokomaru, Manawatu, New Zealand. (See map.)
     
  • Visit Us:  Experience static displays with a  guided tour. Open:   Monday  to  Saturday,  visiting hours 9.00am - 3.30pm; or Sunday,  10.30am - 3.30pm.  NB: “Steam Up” days run 1.30pm - 4.00pm (see calendar below for specific dates). Closed: Christmas Day / Good Friday.
     
  • Contact: Telephone, 64 6 329-8867; or send an email. Postal address: PO Box 46, Tokomaru, Manawatu, New Zealand.
     
  • Admission: Adults $15 each, Children $5 each. Please note: EftPos facilities unavailable.
     
  • Calendar: The museum has working steam displays about 10 times a year. Please note the “steam-up” dates for 2008/2009:—

28 Dec

1.30-4.00pm.

04, 11, 18 Jan

1.30-4.00pm.

NEW ZEALAND’S ORIGINAL STEAM HERITAGE ATTRACTION

Worths’ Circus elephants tackling the unusual task of pulling a traction engine through the Waipawa river. c1911.  

The first 100 years of New Zealand’s development relied heavily on steam energy. Sawmills, garnering the virgin forests of the new land, were set up in primitive conditions. Portable boilers powering steam-driven log haulers dragged the felled timber considerable distances to the site for pit sawing.

The Powdrell Brothers’ Fowler Traction Engine  pulling a load of straw, which, shortly after this photo was taken, burned, along with the wagons, as a result of a spark from the Traction Engine. c1915

The Wanganui volunteer fire Brigade aboard the only Merryweather self-propelled engine in NZ. Unfortunately this engine was scrapped. c1920.

As land was cleared of trees, traction engines, road rollers and steam dredges were used to build roads and drains. This gave important access to farmland, and readied further land for cropping and grazing.

Southees’ Mill operating at Joe Ryder’s farm, Albert Road, Tokomaru. An American vertical boiler is driving a log hauler. c1915.

Here a Traction Engine pulls a transformer from Shannon to the new Mangahao Power Station.  c1925.

Prior to the invention of large capacity tractors and trucks, traction engines were used to complete all manner of tasks. The powerful machines could pull huge loads, but because of their considerable weight were themselves subject to getting bogged in swampy ground. Another hazard with agricultural machinery involved the fire risk of sparks often wildly emitted from traction engine fire boxes.

A Traction Engine of 8hp pulls three trailers of wool over the Orig Station bridge, Hawkes Bay. c1911.

An early Wairarapa scene in which six wagons of people are transported to a Sunday School picnic. c1910.

Steam was also used to power steam trucks and fire engines. Remaining examples of these are few and precious now.

Shifting the Catholic Church from one site to another in Carterton, early 20th century. 

An example of two Traction Engines pulling a mammoth-sized grand stand to its next location.  Waipawa, Hawkes Bay. c1900.

The first job for the Museum’s 1904 Fowler Traction Engine was helping to beach a fishing boat at Awatoto (near Napier).

All engines installed in the Museum, drawn as they are from all types of industrial sites throughout New Zealand, have a high heritage value.

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