Wellington Vintage Machinery Club Part 1

The Wellington Vintage Machinery Club are one of the many organisations taking part in the September Heritage Month and were holding an Open Day. Knowing that our friends also share an interest in this sort of thing, we invited Dot and Derek to join us to a visit to the clubrooms in Mangaroa, Upper Hutt.    The club rooms themselves are vintage and have have their own story to tell.  Starting off as a dairy factory, it is now the only remaining example of a dairy building in the Wellington area.  Then it was changed to a bottling plant, and during the war was used as a munitions store.  After lying derelict for many years, the club acquired the building on a 20 year lease from the Council 10 years ago.  Tucked away inside is a huge collection of machines from earlier times, and the 40 members work hard to lovingly restore these vintage treasures.

Wellington Vintage Machinery club rooms

Just inside the door was a display of dairying implements from days gone by, such as buckets, milk separators, and early examples of suction cups.  The photos on the walls showed  milking sheds from long ago,  with just a few cows hooked up to early mechanical milking machines in quite primitive conditions.   Containers of milk were then put of the back of a cart and taken to the local dairy company – every small town had one of these.  How things have changed in the dairy industry.

Display of milking shed implements

Our caravanning mate Russell had a small 1910 Petter engine all fired up and puffing smoke out of the chimney.  The weather was quite inclement so the engine was working in the shed doorway.  When the weather improved later on we saw this engine moved outside, and put under load to make it work better, we were told.

Russell watching the smoke puffs

The pride of the collection is a majestic black 1911 steam traction engine, built by John Fowler and Co, Leeds.  This was owned by a former club member who has since passed away, and is on loan to the club courtesy of the family members.  Wouldn’t this make a wonderful sight all steamed up in the great outdoors and doing the farm work it was designed for? 

 1911 John Fowler steam traction engine

When we visited the Trentham Race Course a couple of weeks ago we didn’t realise that one of the engines that had kept the tote running in earlier years was now an important part of the club’s collection.  This is a Frisco Standard 16hp pedestal engine and dates from 1910.  After a few adjustments the club member had it up and running as a demonstration.  

Frisco Standard Pedestal Engine

There was a huge Tangyes engine, made in Birmingham, on display, and came from Odlins Timber Company in Petone.  Interesting enough, both Robin and I were employed at Odlins at different times in our lives.  (This was well before we were fated to meet).  Robin worked in the factory as a teenager during the school holidays and can remember this huge machine  quite vividly.  The driving shaft was under the floor of the planing mill and the leather belts were running through the floor to the finishing planes.  The belts used to squeal and when the machine was engaged and wound right up to speed, he remembers the noise sounding like a jet engine.  My time with this company was spent doing accounts work in the office, so I did not really venture into the noisy factory.  A deep pit had to be dug to accommodate this engine before it could be installed in the club room, and it is now run on electricity for demonstration purposes. 

 

The Tangyes engine from Odlins Timber Company

The club rooms and sheds out the back were full to overflowing of all sorts of interesting machines.  So tune in tomorrow for Vintage Machinery Part 2.