In the last month, the society has received two exciting pieces of news. The first is that Boxwagon K610 won the FRONZ Rolling Stock Restoration Award. Presumably applications were received from other rail groups around the country, and to receive this recognition is very rewarding.

The second piece of news is that the Dunedin City Council has contributed $1300 to complete the transfer of old 8mm film and archival material to an electronic format to ensure it will survive into the future. Our society has invested in this project on several occasions over the last decade and its completion will allow editing and enhancement to be done to make the material more user friendly.

The restoration of insulated box wagon W 840 continues to make good progress. The replacement timber for the roof repairs has been fitted and the surrounding area has been treated with a special sealant to make the problem less likely to re-occur. The interior lining at the south end of the wagon has been removed. The framing is in excellent order, although it has a distinct curvature through shifting loads colliding with it over the years, and possibly over-tightened tie rods. Trying to rectify the curvature is impractical to fix as it would require the end framing to be replaced; which is a lot of work for a very minor cosmetic gain. Half of one side has had the thick old paint removed and one end has been sanded back and loose cladding resecured prior to filling and repainting.

Carriage A210 continues to make cautious progress with a further rotten roof beam having been removed and a large area of the ceiling and one wall in the second class end having been heat-gunned and sanded. The old paint is proving difficult to remove as the melted paint is like toffee to scrape off and the residue destroys the abrasive property of the sandpaper. Even chemical stripper struggles so make much headway. But good progress is being made.

Reassembly of the Tamper is nearing completion although there are still a number of leaks to be remedied and hydraulic lines to purge the air from. The machine has been steam-cleaned and has emerged from the workshop on two occasions to re-pack some short lengths of track. These test runs have been largely trouble-free and we look forward to the machine being part of further track upgrading work.

F111's wheels have re-emerged from the depths of Farra's machine shop. The reprofiling work has been even more successful than we expected with less material having to be removed than we'd allowed for. The left-hand valve is currently being resurfaced before the wheels are refitted.

A number of sleepers have been replaced on the "hill" and an even larger number of old sleepers have been sold for an intriguing garden project. The south yard has been weedsprayed to deal with the last growth spurt before winter.

The railway has been providing both manpower and equipment to Port Otago to catch up on maintenance on their private sidings. The large air drill and impact wrench have been upgraded for this project and more tools are likely to follow. The funds raised will allow other work at the railway to progress without drawing down society reserves.

There has been a sizable quantity of firewood cut and placed in the Lc wagon, with a mountain of pallets being cut into locomotive firedoor sized pieces.

The 40lb track outside our workshop is probably some of the oldest track still in use in New Zealand. It was probably well past its use-by date when it was installed 40 years ago and has functioned comparatively reliably ever since, with some portions looking to have required virtually no remedial work since. It had reached the point where its ability to function was becoming dubious so remedial work has been undertaken to allow it to continue to work until we are ready to reconfigure that portion of the railway. So far, a large number of severely rusted bolts have been renewed, 5 rotten sleepers replaced and the track has been relevelled and tamped. The ballast and sub-base in this area is particularly poor, requiring a lift of up to 40mm. Over time, it will probably settle but will still be a vast improvement on what we had. The investment in time and resources has been fairly minimal and when finished will mean that we can reconfigure this area when we want to, rather than as a result of a failure. Further bolts are to be replaced as well as a few portions of rail.