STEAM

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 431, 13 August 1928, Page 13

STEAM

Romance of Engines Aucklander's Hobby A WONDERFUL COLLECTION New Zealand has at least one "publicity” man who receives no official recognition. He is known by practically every steamship and railway company in Great Britain and America. His only excuse for his work is that it is a hobby. Mr. W. W. Stewart, of Fowlds Avenue, Edendale, started 15 years ago to build up a wonderful collection of books and pamphlets relating to

locomotives and steamships. To-day he has a library of 700 volumes, 1.500 photographic negatives, and a correspondence which keeps him in close touch with the whole world. Among Mr. Stewart’s collection are some interesting souvenirs of the New Zealand Railways. He possesses all the working timetables from 1879 onward, a poster timetable for the Auckland - N garuawahia line in 1877, a copy of the working timetable issued to the staff of the Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company before it was bought by the Government, a flag off the train at the official opening of the Otira tunnel in August, 192 3, and the train advice for the tour of the GovernorGeneral through New Zealand in 1903. Mr. Stewart’s books are a mine of information to the layman. One learns that New Zealand was the first country in the world to run Pacific-type engines, and these were the N.R.R. Q. class. That was in 1901. It is interesting to know that when a company manufactures a new locomotive it is usually named after something individual of the country which first uses one. The ‘Mikado” was named because the first engine of its kind went to Japan. There is romance in the history of the locomotive. The first one was made by a Frenchman, Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, in 1769. According to a picture in one of Mr. Stewart’s volumes it was a queer-looking itfachine with a single front wheel. It ran at the rate of three or four miles an hour on ordinary roads, but never travelled longer than 10 to 15 minutes without stopping. Mr. Stewart’s photographs make excellent publicity for New Zealand. For stance, on the covers of two of the quarterly magazines of the Baldwin Locomotive Company of America are pictures of the railway bridge across the Waikato and of the Limited coming out of the Parnell tunnel. In “The United States Naval Institute Proceedings for 1926” is a picture of the Colorado and the Maryland the Auckland Harbour giving a searchlight display. In various railway magazines published in England are pictures of New Zealand and New Zealand railways by Mr. Stewart; also articles from his pen. All this is publicity for the Dominion, even though the public which it reaches is a limited one. The history of the railway in New Zealand is also second nature to this enthusiast. With pictures and printed matter he can trace the advance of the iron rail through the Dominion, even to the changes in the cost of travel. One old circular issued for the Christmas and New Tear holidays, 1898-99, gives the following prices between Auckland and Cambridge: First class return, 28s Id; second class return, 18s 9d. Even in the official records of the navies of the world one comes on photographs by Mr. Stewart. These are principally of the warships of the United States Navy which visited Auckland, but they include some excellent views of the harbour. There is everything of topical inter-

est in the many railway magazines which Mr. Stewart receives, even to “Miss New Zealand” stepping off a train in the States on her recent “ambassadorial” tour. - Nothing of interest escapes this collector, whose shelves are lined with copies of “His Majesty’s Navy,” “Brassey’s Annual,” “Jane’s FightingShips,” “The Locomotive Encyclopaedia,” the history of locomotives in England, the history of the Robert Stephenson Company, and the “English Railway Magazine” for the past 20 years, as well as numerous other publications by private companies and volumes in French and German dealing with railways in those countries. Some day a fascinating history of the railway in New Zealand will emanate from this interesting library. It will be profusely illustrated with pictures, including some of the earliest of our locomotives and glorious scenes of trains travelling through the Dominion’s lovely scenery.