Outrage after Kawakawa railway volunteer bashed

"The bashing of a Bay of Islands Vintage Railway stalwart by youths who were burgling the railway shed has shocked the Kawakawa community."
The good news is it seems he managed to hit one in the face with a shovel.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=11848268" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


http://www.bayofislandsvintagerailway.org.nz/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That Bay of Islands Vintage Railway is a nice promo, staring Gabriel.
Steam Incorporated (NZ) has a display of 42 attractive photos on Google. I started the Scenic NZ thread to
put them into, but I couldn't link to or lift them.

Yes , it is a well run little railway.
Surprised you have not discovered the public toilets in KawaKawa, Philip.

David Benton wrote: Surprised you have not discovered the public toilets in KawaKawa, Philip.

I'll have to look for them. (Is this a railfan forum, or some sort of less noble forum? )

David Benton wrote:The good news is it seems he managed to hit one in the face with a shovel.

I was once firing a tank engine on a British heritage line when we were attacked by a local bloke who owned a fleet of lorries and who appeared to object to us shunting next to his yard. He was a big bloke, built like the proverbial brick buildings that Philip is looking for in KawaKawa, with a reputation for being a proper naughty moody geezer, and he was high on drugs. He threw ballast at us so hard that it broke one of the armoured glass windows on the loco. One of his own workers came out of the lorry yard to try to restrain him but just got a punch in the face for his efforts. Our driver stood at the loco door wielding a coal pick so the bloke couldn't get onto the footplate, but he did attack our shunter on the ground. He then started piling sleepers on the line to stop us moving. The driver opened the cylinder cocks to produce a cloud of steam and moved forwards slowly to push the sleepers out of the way. At that point four council workers who were repairing the level crossing a little way off saw what was happening and started to come towards him hefting picks and shovels, and he eventually backed off. We called the police, and when they heard who it was they told us there were only two of them (this was a little rural police station more than twenty years ago) and they weren't going to come unless there were six or more of them. When they did finally arrest him later they were very pleased to discover that even though we were only a heritage line, the same laws applied as to main lines, and attempting to derail a train is a pretty serious offence. I didn't follow it up but I believe in the end they got him for tax offences after someone grassed him up - he had a lot of enemies amongst the locals.

Excellent story, John. I have here a photo of similar police force about to encounter the Pirates of Penzance.

"Though to us it’s evident,

Tarantara! tarantara!

These attentions are well meant,

Tarantara!

Such expressions don’t appear,

Tarantara! tarantara!

Calculated men to cheer,

Tarantara!

Who are going to meet their fate
In a highly nervous state.


Tarantara! tarantara! tarantara!

Still to us it’s evident
These attentions are well meant.


Tarantara! tarantara! tarantara!"