Thomas the Tank Engine has gone off the rails – but a team of Cromwell locals are working hard to get him back on track.

Thomas knows the value of hard work, pulling along excited children of all ages at almost every event held in the Cromwell area.

However last year, the unthinkable happened.

“He’d been having increasing health issues for a while”, explains Thomas’ doctor and support person, John Lister. 

“At Santaland, he was happily tootling along for most of the afternoon. Then half an hour before stop time, he stopped and he would not start again.

“There was a queue of kids waiting and the poor fella driving, he said you should’ve seen those poor faces.”

Then, just before Christmas, Thomas went out to the carol singing in Alpha Street.

“Well, it was only two hours after he’d left his little shed, till he was back in it,” John says.

“He’d used over half a litre of oil, spat out transmission fluid and he was smoking terribly.

“He was just worn out.

“We couldn’t just scrap him – we knew we had to fix him.”

Thomas’ recovery is a collaboration between Cromwell Lions and the Menz Shed.

John, and the men from the Menz Shed in Cromwell, along with local Lions members are providing the skills and manpower to get Thomas back into the community.

“Our old friend Thomas was here long before I was,” John explains. 

“He’s been here in Cromwell for more than 35 years, and he had been working in Dunedin before that.

“I understand the person behind getting Thomas here all those years ago was the infamous Jeff Connelly, ‘Dynamite Jeff’ as he was known.

“When I joined Lions, somehow I slipped into the job of looking after Thomas, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

John says Thomas just got worn out. The much-loved train got to the stage where even John couldn’t keep patching him up.

“The engine and gearbox came to the end of their useful life.”

The decision was made not to replace the engine and gearbox with another set from a car, but to go all-out and give Thomas an engine more fitting for such a hard worker.

“He’s really been used as a tractor for close to 50 years, so we decided it would be a good idea to give Thomas a tractor engine.”

Thomas was taken into the workshop at the Menz Shed, to have his tired engine removed and to get a full health assessment.

The plan, John says, is for a full body rejuvenation and to install a new engine.

“On behalf of Lions, I’ve managed to buy a small tractor.

“What we’re going to do is lift Thomas up and put him over the top of this tractor, attach him and sort everything out, and he’ll be back at work again.”

This time, John says, he’ll be a proper tractor with a diesel engine designed for the job.

John says he will design and build linkages to move the steering and pedals to one side  – it’s not a straightforward job.

“You drive a tractor, you sit in the middle.

“Well, we won’t be able to sit in the middle on Thomas, because you can’t see for the funnel.

“I’ve got a bit of conjuring to do.

“It will take some time, but we’re going to make him go again.”

Images Mary Hinsen