Brake Waggon Feature Of Early Days Museum

Press, Volume C, Issue 29501, 1 May 1961, Page 8

Brake Waggon Feature Of Early Days Museum

“The Press” Special Service

AUCKLAND, April 30. An 1888 railway brake waggon once used on trains crossing the Rimutaka hills between Wellington and the Wairarapa, now stands in the spacious grounds of the home of Mr J. Rider, in Riversdale road. Avondale. The Railways Department kept the waggon for many years as a grader. It has a blade on it, cut away at the sides to fit over the rails. Mr Rider has a garden full of bits and pieces reminiscent of early days in New Zealand. He worked for many years in railway workshops, and has in his collection an engine built in Glasgow in 1872. A blacksmith’s shed containing a bellows forge in working order is another feature of the collection. Mr Rider also has the wheelhouse of the Waitemata harbour ferry Eaglehawk. Another oddity is a circular telephone box with a sliding door and a batteryoperated telephone inside. Ornate gas lamps line the driveway into the property, and bread waggons, railway carriages, a waterwheel and an iron-bound horse trough stand among the trees and

native bush in the grounds. Mr Rider now is hard at : work rebuilding a two-storey i shed to resemble an old-time i inn. To stock it he has old, i iron-bound barrels, a china- , handled beer pump, and several old-fashioned whisky ; flagons. Some of them are 200 years old, but all are i empty.