Story: Bush trams and other log transport

In 1904, this tramway at Maropiu, Northland, had such a steep grade it required a brakeman riding on each bogie (small cart). They both wound hand cranks that pressed board brakes onto the faces of each wheel. It was very dangerous work. On a nearby tram in that same year, a brakeman was crushed to death by a log when a bogie wheel collapsed.

Listen to Alec Brownlee talk about the tramways that brought logs to the mills on the West Coast.

Transcript

I was in the workshop, we had a big shop. Two great big doors and we used to take all the locos in there in big pits where we used to do them up, you know. Next thing a damn crash and in comes a load of logs! And I'd just got out of this [?], it was this thing on the trolley on the rails, cos it shot it to hell out of it and I took cover the side of the shop. Lo and behold it had come off the line a bit further up, the old loco had jumped the line and the logs had come past, you know. And we got the dozer out, put it back on the line and it seemed all right. The D, they rolled that one over Bell Hill, it got away on them, jumped the rails, swung around, rolled over three times like that. When it went over they left them on the grass! Never hurt anybody. That killed one or two in our day. On that little loco there they go away in the morning early in the morning, we used to get some very heavy frosts, and one hill before we got to Bell Hill, quite a grade, and the damn, they used to have all these wagons, the timber wagons would be in front, and things come unhooked off the loco and start to run down the hill. Well they couldn't, they'd only run down to the flat, but anyway he hopped off the loco and chased after it. And the loco was coming along and he tripped and fell and the damn loco run over him. That was one tragedy we had. Had quite a few in the bush of course in those days.