From the garage of Ken Devlin

DB 1082 at Dunedin loco waiting a trip to Hillside and refurbishment

...to look a bit like sister 1099 on a test run to Sawyers Bay. Looks like the painters forgot to do the bogies

DE 1366 above Hillside with one of the cute shunter's trolleys that some of the DEs carted around with them

DIs 1808 1814 were on the Stone train for this series of shots recorded above Hillside and Carisbrook

A clean pair of classic reds, with the distinctive bow of Dashwood accident survivor DG 2232 (770 now on Weka Pass) in the foreground during the brief period after TMS re-numbering, but before overhaul and repainting as a 'slave' DG

DI 1808 heads south past Carisbrook with the Mosgiel shunt. From this shot it appears that Dunedin's double tracking was eliminated just to put that small cabin there

DI 1814 in the Dunedin Station yard. Other than the hills behind, what remains? The loco, train of four wheelers, yard, guards van and now even the overbridge (oops) have all gone to the big marshalling yard in the sky

Di 1814 at Dunedin's majestic station with one of the last subbies

A beaut roster shot of DI 1820, the last DI to wear its original red colours, which probably dates this shot to 1980 or 81. Anyone have any ideas why the cab panel is rusty?

Red DI 1820 and a red old cab DG form a rarely seen TMS-era train combo

2036 2445 and an unidentified red DSC motor north at Sawyers Bay

DG 2059 meets its end at Pacific Scrap in Dunedin. Save me that bogie. Hard to see, but it looks like 2059 had body-mounted sandboxes right to the end. You can just see the filler caps and they've partially severed the sandbox on the closest corner

Passing Hillside, DI 1808 and DG 2105 return from dropping stone train empties at Burnside

New and old cab DGs 2128 and bent DG 2232 again

Another pair of DGs, 2140 and 2422, head into Dunedin

A tidy looking 2255, now DTG's 772, at Dunedin. While I love the fruit salad scene, I'm not a big fan of this treatment on the DGs, red, stripes and TMS numbers as below is far classier in my unimportant opinion

2261 in the morgue at Pacific Scrap. Did they use watercolours for the TMS numbers?

A pair of recabs leaving Dunedin for points north

Wow. How's that for an interesting combo? DGs 2330 and saggy 2232 bring DBR 1282 to Dunedin. This was a crusty old neg, but what a shot

Freshly reborn DG 2330 at Dunedin Loco. That CP wagon carried Dunedin's load bank under that secure tarp

A lovely shot of 2347 and 3096 on the picturesque bridge at Waitati

Hey, that number looks familiar... a great roster shot of 2376 (formerly 783) with all its wheels at Dunedin. And the neg was clean. I hope that's not a sign...DJ 3113 carries a mix of TMS blue and that yucky old Southerner livery before being re-engined

All shapes and sizes. 2439, 1366 and 6162 in front of the 'new' Dunedin loco depot

2439 and faded 2111 at the same spot. I wonder if they were just having their traction motors reclaimed, as the lot in the background looks laid up, and this is the orientation that these two locos were in a Pelichet bay when they were stripped

Another superb moment captured on film, but alas the negative has suffered over the years. 2439, 2232 and 1814 cross a pair of DJs at Waitati

DJ 3194 and 1843 on a northbound goods at Sawyers Bay. Yummy

Red DJ 3228 still has its original engine as it brings a subbie past the old Road Services depot beside Dunedin station 

DJ 3326, 3228 (now in blue) and DG 2186 pause on their northward journey to shunt at Sawyers Bay

3418 and 1808 leave Dunedin in the fog at Pelichet Bay with what looks like a work train

This is a fairly crusty scan, but interesting - 3378 still has the black side sills from its wasp days. 

The fairly unlikely pairing of DF 6133 and recab 2439 coming into Dunedin with a goods train

Intruder... DA 725 after an overhaul at Hillside

Testing at Port Chalmers with the massive load of one guards van

A very smart looking 777 keeps a wary eye on facelifted sister 760 behind her as they slumber beside the remains of the old Dunedin loco depot. I had several goes at colour correcting this negative, and it still looks a bit whacked. A job for Superman (DLA Turner) I feel.

A pair of DIs on the stone train wait at Burnside - what a charming scene with the old station, signal box and track gang Bedford

Good looking DSC 2693 enjoys a brief patch of sun in Dunedin's main yard

EW 171, which from memory was at Timaru for a while, at Dn loco before being towed to Hillside for storage

The EW safely ensconced at Hillside as another DI hauled stoner passes by

A nice collection, including red DSCs and DB 1099

Another stoner waits at Burnside for the Southerner to pass. Well, actually its the same one with the bus, but as the old saying goes, one good shot deserves another

The end of the recabs

The gathering at Dunedin Loco. Brake hoses and HSL handbrakes have been removed already

After withdrawl, the recabs were sold to Dunedin Machinery dealers W. Rietveld and Sons, towed to Dunedin and then dribbled out to Pelichet Bay, not far north of the station, for stripping before the hulks were cut up, primarily at Pacific Steel. This was the second set to be moved to 'P Bay', comprising 2007, 2290, 2111 and 2439. Months earlier, 2347 2140 2036 2105 were the first to go, with one (probably 2105) at far left. Lastly 2128 and 2330, which hung around at the south end of Dunedin Loco for some time, were moved for stripping - the last recabs to exist.

DG 2007 awaits stripping at Pelichet bay as three DJs power past with a northbound goods train. Enjoy it while you can my friends, because you too will be out of service within 5 years. 3107 survives today in the employ of Dunedin's Otago Excursion Train. The cab of 2007 survives as well, but that's another story  

During the holiday seasons, when the southerner often loaded up to 9 or 10 total, a DF replaced the normal pair of DJs. One is seen here cruising past the second four recabs to be scrapped. The leader has lost its nose and brake control gear, leaving the two collision posts.

Just before the leave that, this is the structure that held the brake gear in the nose. A close-up of the nose is here 

Grotesque corpses awaiting the removal of their innards. Note how close the engine inlet manifold tube is to the roofline

DJ 3384 with a shorter train passes the first set. Once the nose was gone the cabs were unbolted and removed and lastly the motor/generator sets were taken out as seen here

It's a small world after all. Chris Rietveld and one of his employees save the cab off DG 2140. The cab sides hung down over the frames and these protrusions had to be gas-cut off so they'd sit flat on the truck. I assume that grey rectangle behind the left rear wheel of the big truck is one of them. Strangely enough, I now have this relic, but don't intend to have a use for it unless the DTG changes their mind and wants to recab 772 or 1501... So if anyone wants 2140's fancypants cab in about two years time, please contact me...

The engine room, probably of 2347, during its dismantling. In the middle of the shot is the auxiliary (110v) generator, the main traction generator behind it and then the 6srkt mk2 diesel engine. Bottom left and right are the battery box housings, above which are dirty patches where the boxes containing resistances used to alter field strength used to be. On the right wall of the picture, some of the ducting remains that was built to feed air up to the relocated front traction motor blower, which was mounted on a roof panel and fed a stream of air down through a leather tube to the raised rectangular duct in the floor that can be seen to the right of the Aux generator.

Don't lose your head.