Every Bloke needs a Hutt....

Am_Fet writes: Well, it was finally time for my job to start paying me back for all the countless hours I have spent staring at a computer screen trying to work out why a printer in the ONTRACK finance department wasn't working....And so I've just spent the last 6 days out at Hutt Workshops migrating the data network (and all the users) across from United Group to KiwiRail.

When the rabble I loosely refer to as "friends" heard I was going out there, they all cried "Take lots of Photos"...so I tried....

Everything was exciting for the first few days. I scoured the Plant buildings and the storage sidings, and rushed outside whenever I heard a suspicious engine note (most embarrassing was a badly tuned 250cc trail bike). DXB 5189 and DH2868 were being passed out, so there was much happening outside in the sun (apologies for this and some other photos, they were taken on my cell phone):


Inside Plant 1 (Heavy Overhaul), DX 5068 was getting rebuilt...and fans of the big GE will be thrilled to know it is keeping its square nose.


Plant 2 (Minor Overhaul) was starring 4559 and 7010:




And the storage sidings were well worth a fossick:


But mysteriously, by Wednesday it had all got a bit...mundane...(Sacrilege! I can hear the punters cry!). The reality is that nothing ever changes quickly there...all the jobs getting done are measured in days and weeks, not hours...so (to quote Trent Reznor) every day is exactly the same.

Luckily I found my focus shifting....I no longer cared what DX was in Plant 1 (stopped looking at it as I walked past by Thursday, if truth be told), but I began to notice...the little bits.....

This has to be the biggest Gantt chart I think I've seen....and I first thought it must have been for a full rebuild program of an entire locomotive class, but I was wrong. What you are looking at is the project plan to overhaul DX5080....and in case you are wondering, the figure at the bottom reads "5732 Man Hours".


Found these in the library between "Cortina" and Hillman Hunter"....


"Why Yes, we do have a DFT Fuel Tank in stock...and todays special offer, you get a DX one for free!"


Wellington commuters will be able to identify the fabric (for others, this is the seating fabric used on our EMU's):


Down by the paint shops, I found these nailed to the wall...and to quell all future arguments, I turned one over...and yes, we are still using "International Orange"...


Like all good projects, there are parts left over...


Even the scrap bins are fascinating...


(This Phase I DX controller has since donated a control handle for LE Mike's control stand in Greymouth....)

By Friday, the enthusiast rose-coloured spectacles lay well and truly smashed....I don't think I could work there full time. The buildings are showing all of their 90-odd years; they are bitterly cold in winter, hot as Hades in summer and leak like a sieve when its wet....and parts of it look like Communist-era Eastern Germany:


However, the big thing that I learn't as the week wore on was that everyone I spoke to was really proud of where they worked and what they were achieving. And there was hardly an office I walked into (i.e all of them) that didn't have at least one framed picture of a locomotive on the wall:


And I really need to get one of these for the back garden...


Finally, 3 things:

- Apologies for the length of this post, but I really had too many photos to show you them all. Maybe some more gems will arrive later.
- If notices on boards are to be believed, there could be an open day early next year (if workers support deems to possible).
- If you are a fan of DX 5166 in its black scheme, I would make sure you went looking for it next week to photograph it...it may be your last chance!