September 14, 2025 • 8 mins
Our Garston correspondent says moving sleepers on a railway line is a case of steady as she goes as the Kingston to Fairlight railway line undergoes pre-season maintenance.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
The tones of the late Dolores so red and of
the cran breeze. This is the muster away up or
down depending on where you are to Garston, Tom O'Brien,
we catch up this afternoon. Get a Tom, god Andy,
how's everything up there in northern Northern Southland?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh, northern northern south it's pretty good. Yeah, a little
bit of a breeze today, a little bit of an
northerly beautiful Sunday morning, but it sort of clouded over
a bit and it's starting to cool down a little bit.
But yeah, that.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Did the snow come down very low on the hills as.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Such, not really not as much as what they were
sort of forecasting. It was more of a westerly flow,
so it kind of went up for the mountains more so.
We had a little bit, but it didn't last long.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
What would you ever drainfall be up there?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You wreckon tomh probably up around six hundred six hundred miles.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Animator's cheepers, there's not that I suppose Central Attago climate.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah that's right, yep, yeah, yeah, No, we don't get
a lot really in the big scheme of things.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, that's for sure. Hey, last time we were speaking to.
You were flat out fixing sleepers involved the kings and fly.
Did you manage to get that all that all that sorted?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh, we didn't have it having got it all sorted.
But yeah, I was back there a couple of days
ago doing more track work. Digger was putting in new sleepers,
just shimmying the old ones out and then shimmying the
new ones in. And then we just go along with
the drills and pre drill the holes and then just
put in the put in the spot, put in the screws,
(01:38):
just with a dance, just a petrol dance, screwed doze
in and then we checked the gauge three foot six
or one thousand and seven eight nine meters and yeah,
I mean just tie the track down.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So how do you dictate which sleepers go and which stay?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Basically when you walk along and you kick them and
stand on them, and the and the bolts a bit
loose or the sleepers are a bit rotten, you know,
just got to get a bit of dazzle and just
mark on the sleeper or the dazzle and say, well
that's that's a rotten one, or you know that needs replacing. Yeah,
it's not rocket tights.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So how long does it take to do the whole
track because it's not exactly half a k or anything.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, I'm doing this work
for my sins, so I must have been a bad
person at some stage, or maybe I still am. I
don't know. I've quite figure that out. No, we're replacing
three hundred sleepers, but there's twenty two thousand sleepers in
total in the whole track, so it's not the sort
of thing that that you can do in one hit.
(02:39):
And yeah, sleepers are being replaced, you know, every couple
of years. It's just an ongoing basis. But they some
of those sleepers will be eighteen years old. Yeah, and
they used to be jar a hardwood, whereas nowadays they
can be anything from macrocarpet to it to a pine.
(03:01):
So the water is a little bit softer.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It was interesting just down by wiper he here the
other day I seen two diggers working on Saturday morning
doing exactly what you were, but probably on a bigger scale.
And yeah, I thought he was certaineously thinking, here's Thomas
O'Brien actually gone a bit higher in his contract.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Perhaps, Ah yeah, look, well you know if I cast
my memory back, it doesn't seem that long ago that
we were actually just doing everything with hand to It's
like you t Spanner's two guys on one spanner spanner
putting it on the screws and undoing the screws, and
then we still use it's like a massive crowbar to
take the dog spikes out the ones of the spikes.
(03:40):
So yeah, and we used to boil a billy on
the side of the track. And there was another guy
I remember. We used to work with this old guy, Clive,
who was like an old railway stool wharf. And on
the first day that we started work and we were
getting the jigger with the little trolleys and the ballast
to put under the sleepers once we'd replaced them, old
boy goes what's your name? And I said, oh, Tom
(04:02):
said to my mate Reagan, what's your name? And he
goes Reagan and he goes Reagan, No, that's not your name.
Your name is Jerry. Tom and Jerry pretty well set
the tone for the rest of the rest of the time.
So but yeah, it was I mean, a good day
was eleven sleepers in a day. That was a really
good day. My hand, Yeah, it was pretty arduous. Yeah,
(04:25):
it was heard out.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So and let's face it, it will be a job
that would suck if you didn't get on with the
personnel around you.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Oh correct, Yeah, no, you've definitely you've got to maintain
a bit of a sense of humor and and yeah, yeah,
you just need to Yeah, and it's and it's hard work.
You know, you need to take breaks and it's quite
hard on the back and stuff. So so yeah, yeah,
but you know, it's part of the history and part
of keeping things on track, so to speak. And I
(04:54):
guess it's the thing behind the scenes that people don't
know about.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
At the moment as well. It sounds like you're helping
your mate organized for moving a house. Now, we've all
seen that programund Telly about moving houses. For example, the Presbyterian,
the Presbyterian Church from Lonson went to aarrowtown and getting
it around the devil staircase must have been a hell
of a nightmare. It can't be an easy exercise. How
much planning goes into something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well, we're doing that right now. So as you say, yeah,
there's a mate's getting house built in the cargo and
the builders up here at the moment, and we're just
going through the logistics of how we're actually going to
get the house up here. You know, past power poles
passed over hanging branches and trees. So yeah, we've got
the measuring tape out and we're doing this and doing
(05:38):
that and figgering out, you know, which areas are going
to have to cut. And then we're on site just
looking how we're going to orientate the house sort of
in the north spacing direction, and yeah, looking at what
sort of piles are going to go, and yeah, looking
at geotech reports and engineers reports, and yeah, just just
(05:58):
going through that process. My mate, he's down here at
the moment where we're having a look at that and
hopefully all things things going to plan. Would be really
nice to see this house up here before Christmas.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Question, you say the house is being built in the
cargo and transported. Logistically, would have been easier to have
built the house where it's going.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Probably not, because we don't as you know, we don't
really have a lot of services where we are. Yeah,
I mean, I know what you're saying, but yeah, it
was just he did he worked it out, and he said, no,
it's much easier and much faster and more efficient to
actually get the thing built on site because this company,
that's what they do. You know, they just specialize in
building on site and then transporting and quite a few
(06:42):
people are doing that nowadays. So yeah, and it's you know,
it's quite hard to get to get builders where we
are and you know, either i's busy and getting supplied
and that, so they just no better off to do
it in the yard. And so that's what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Get some of these Subby's are living in Kingston coming
do a cashy for you at night.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Oh look, they're so busy out there. There's there's there's
loads of them.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Actually, kings that Kingston is hectic these days when you
go in.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
There, Sure is it? Sure is? Hey the boss. The
boss is saying, hey, which way he's got a question?
You want to know which way in authors Uh, he's
losing elevation. He needs to know which direction he's going.
Sound's got the story of my life, mate. Yeah, no, Look,
there's super busy mate. You know, there's there's stubbies who
(07:33):
are looking for accommodation and the Kingston Garston ethyl area
we're obviously going to be having a lot of builders
coming into the area at some stage to build all
those houses for those sections. So yeah, it's looking like
it will probably only go one way, so we need
to be able to cater for those people, right So yeah, yeah,
and that code goes back into the realms of you know,
(07:55):
social planning and what you can and can't do within
the Southern district on the border.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Right out of Tom'll let you back on the tools.
You'd better find out where North has always good to
catch up.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Sounds good madey.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Tom O'Brien based up of Garston. Up next, Paul Ellison
The tones of the late Dolores so red and of
the cran breeze. This is the muster away up or
down depending on where you are to Garston, Tom O'Brien,
we catch up this afternoon. Get a Tom, god Andy,
how's everything up there in northern Northern Southland?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh, northern northern south it's pretty good. Yeah, a little
bit of a breeze today, a little bit of an
northerly beautiful Sunday morning, but it sort of clouded over
a bit and it's starting to cool down a little bit.
But yeah, that.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Did the snow come down very low on the hills as.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Such, not really not as much as what they were
sort of forecasting. It was more of a westerly flow,
so it kind of went up for the mountains more so.
We had a little bit, but it didn't last long.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
What would you ever drainfall be up there?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You wreckon tomh probably up around six hundred six hundred miles.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Animator's cheepers, there's not that I suppose Central Attago climate.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah that's right, yep, yeah, yeah, No, we don't get
a lot really in the big scheme of things.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, that's for sure. Hey, last time we were speaking to.
You were flat out fixing sleepers involved the kings and fly.
Did you manage to get that all that all that sorted?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh, we didn't have it having got it all sorted.
But yeah, I was back there a couple of days
ago doing more track work. Digger was putting in new sleepers,
just shimmying the old ones out and then shimmying the
new ones in. And then we just go along with
the drills and pre drill the holes and then just
put in the put in the spot, put in the screws,
(01:38):
just with a dance, just a petrol dance, screwed doze
in and then we checked the gauge three foot six
or one thousand and seven eight nine meters and yeah,
I mean just tie the track down.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So how do you dictate which sleepers go and which stay?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Basically when you walk along and you kick them and
stand on them, and the and the bolts a bit
loose or the sleepers are a bit rotten, you know,
just got to get a bit of dazzle and just
mark on the sleeper or the dazzle and say, well
that's that's a rotten one, or you know that needs replacing. Yeah,
it's not rocket tights.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So how long does it take to do the whole
track because it's not exactly half a k or anything.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, I'm doing this work
for my sins, so I must have been a bad
person at some stage, or maybe I still am. I
don't know. I've quite figure that out. No, we're replacing
three hundred sleepers, but there's twenty two thousand sleepers in
total in the whole track, so it's not the sort
of thing that that you can do in one hit.
(02:39):
And yeah, sleepers are being replaced, you know, every couple
of years. It's just an ongoing basis. But they some
of those sleepers will be eighteen years old. Yeah, and
they used to be jar a hardwood, whereas nowadays they
can be anything from macrocarpet to it to a pine.
(03:01):
So the water is a little bit softer.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It was interesting just down by wiper he here the
other day I seen two diggers working on Saturday morning
doing exactly what you were, but probably on a bigger scale.
And yeah, I thought he was certaineously thinking, here's Thomas
O'Brien actually gone a bit higher in his contract.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Perhaps, Ah yeah, look, well you know if I cast
my memory back, it doesn't seem that long ago that
we were actually just doing everything with hand to It's
like you t Spanner's two guys on one spanner spanner
putting it on the screws and undoing the screws, and
then we still use it's like a massive crowbar to
take the dog spikes out the ones of the spikes.
(03:40):
So yeah, and we used to boil a billy on
the side of the track. And there was another guy
I remember. We used to work with this old guy, Clive,
who was like an old railway stool wharf. And on
the first day that we started work and we were
getting the jigger with the little trolleys and the ballast
to put under the sleepers once we'd replaced them, old
boy goes what's your name? And I said, oh, Tom
(04:02):
said to my mate Reagan, what's your name? And he
goes Reagan and he goes Reagan, No, that's not your name.
Your name is Jerry. Tom and Jerry pretty well set
the tone for the rest of the rest of the time.
So but yeah, it was I mean, a good day
was eleven sleepers in a day. That was a really
good day. My hand, Yeah, it was pretty arduous. Yeah,
(04:25):
it was heard out.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So and let's face it, it will be a job
that would suck if you didn't get on with the
personnel around you.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Oh correct, Yeah, no, you've definitely you've got to maintain
a bit of a sense of humor and and yeah, yeah,
you just need to Yeah, and it's and it's hard work.
You know, you need to take breaks and it's quite
hard on the back and stuff. So so yeah, yeah,
but you know, it's part of the history and part
of keeping things on track, so to speak. And I
(04:54):
guess it's the thing behind the scenes that people don't
know about.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
At the moment as well. It sounds like you're helping
your mate organized for moving a house. Now, we've all
seen that programund Telly about moving houses. For example, the Presbyterian,
the Presbyterian Church from Lonson went to aarrowtown and getting
it around the devil staircase must have been a hell
of a nightmare. It can't be an easy exercise. How
much planning goes into something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well, we're doing that right now. So as you say, yeah,
there's a mate's getting house built in the cargo and
the builders up here at the moment, and we're just
going through the logistics of how we're actually going to
get the house up here. You know, past power poles
passed over hanging branches and trees. So yeah, we've got
the measuring tape out and we're doing this and doing
(05:38):
that and figgering out, you know, which areas are going
to have to cut. And then we're on site just
looking how we're going to orientate the house sort of
in the north spacing direction, and yeah, looking at what
sort of piles are going to go, and yeah, looking
at geotech reports and engineers reports, and yeah, just just
(05:58):
going through that process. My mate, he's down here at
the moment where we're having a look at that and
hopefully all things things going to plan. Would be really
nice to see this house up here before Christmas.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Question, you say the house is being built in the
cargo and transported. Logistically, would have been easier to have
built the house where it's going.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Probably not, because we don't as you know, we don't
really have a lot of services where we are. Yeah,
I mean, I know what you're saying, but yeah, it
was just he did he worked it out, and he said, no,
it's much easier and much faster and more efficient to
actually get the thing built on site because this company,
that's what they do. You know, they just specialize in
building on site and then transporting and quite a few
(06:42):
people are doing that nowadays. So yeah, and it's you know,
it's quite hard to get to get builders where we
are and you know, either i's busy and getting supplied
and that, so they just no better off to do
it in the yard. And so that's what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Get some of these Subby's are living in Kingston coming
do a cashy for you at night.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Oh look, they're so busy out there. There's there's there's
loads of them.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Actually, kings that Kingston is hectic these days when you
go in.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
There, Sure is it? Sure is? Hey the boss. The
boss is saying, hey, which way he's got a question?
You want to know which way in authors Uh, he's
losing elevation. He needs to know which direction he's going.
Sound's got the story of my life, mate. Yeah, no, Look,
there's super busy mate. You know, there's there's stubbies who
(07:33):
are looking for accommodation and the Kingston Garston ethyl area
we're obviously going to be having a lot of builders
coming into the area at some stage to build all
those houses for those sections. So yeah, it's looking like
it will probably only go one way, so we need
to be able to cater for those people, right So yeah, yeah,
and that code goes back into the realms of you know,
(07:55):
social planning and what you can and can't do within
the Southern district on the border.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Right out of Tom'll let you back on the tools.
You'd better find out where North has always good to
catch up.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Sounds good madey.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Tom O'Brien based up of Garston. Up next, Paul Ellison
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