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Credit: Maureen Power
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Tuesday, 21 October 2008 |
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 [Editor: Maureen Power tells us you can see these guys working at Ferrymead Heritage Park during the upcoming Labour Weekend. Times and the cost of admission are given below.]
The Heathcote Valley's Ferrymead Heritage Park is home to a lot of interesting reminders of our past. In 1953, two salt tubs arrived from England to begin their duties transporting tens of thousands of tonnes of salt harvested at Lake Grassmere, Marlborough. These are now in the care of the Ferrymead 2Ft Railway Society.
The tubs worked tirelessly until 1968 when they were sold to a collector. In the 1980s the tubs were part of a mortgagee sale and acquired by the Society. After years of exposure to the weather and salt, they were in poor condition. Society member Rodger Rasmussen has spent many years rebuilding the tubs at the Canterbury Railway Society workshops at Ferrymead Heritage Park.
 For the displays of the tubs in operation, at 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 3.30pm on Labour Weekend Sunday and Monday, they will be hauled by a locomotive that is also an ex-Grassmere Saltworks’ machine.
In readiness, large piles of dirt – used in place of salt – are already in place. The operation involves using a digger to fill each tub with two cubic yards of dirt, backing the locomotive hauling its usual passenger carriages into the yard and, under the control of the yard shunter, uncoupling them and picking up the two salt tubs. The train will then travel a short distance to the display area where the tipping operation will be demonstrated.
The tubs will then be returned to the yard, the tubs uncoupled and the passenger carriages picked up again. Each display will take about 15 minutes and the event has been made possible with the help of Hirepool, Texco and The Hire Company.
George Wealleans, General Manager Operations of the Ferrymead 2Ft Railway Society said, “It’s really easy to tip a full tub and we hope to involve the public in the event, especially the ladies!”
Visitors to the Park can ride on the 2ft gauge train for a small fee. Wealleans says, “Our carriage fleet is constructed on these same tub chassis. No springs, so you feel every bump. Quite exciting really!”
The Grassmere Saltworks business was created by George Skellerup in the early 1940s and his daughter Margery Rudkin is now patron of the Ferrymead 2Ft Railway Society.
Entry: $15 adult, $5 child, $12 senior/concession, pre-school free, $35 family pass (2 adults and up to 4 children).
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