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The Muster- Tom O'Brien: It's Train Season · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: We're away up to Garston this afternoon and up in
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: northern South to catch up with Tom O'Brien, a correspondent
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: up those ways.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Tommy Tupper.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: G'day, Andy. How are you going? Hey, listen, you were
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: just playing nickelback in the background there. Was that correct?
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, I was.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, listen, just before we came on here, I
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: was listening to Chris Cornell. You know Chris Cornell of Soundgarden?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Yes, the late Chris Cornell.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: So I listened to an acoustic version that he'd made
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: of U2' s one, Metallica's one, and Harry Nelson's one, and
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: he basically did his own acoustic mashup, and it was
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: absolutely brilliant, and it just was a real reminder of,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: what a massive loss to the world rock scene, you know,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: when Chris Cornell passed away. It was just like, man,
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: he was an absolute prodigy there, man.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: If there's anything the MTV generation taught us, it is
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: that unplugged, which is having music in its rawest form
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: with no electric guitars, basically a couple of, well, not
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: electric guitars, but guitars, normal ones as such, and maybe
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: a light set of drums, and it sets the scene.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: It's surreal to listen to sometimes in the right setting.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Well, there's no auto-tune, there's no AI kind of fixing
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: stuff up. It's very raw. I mean, I remember being
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: in Dunedin one time and there was this guy called
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Paul Lubana Jones who's been around for years and years
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: and toured around New Zealand, done, you know, churches and
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: halls and pubs and gigs and all the rest of it.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: And I was at a gig in Dunedin and his
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: guitar playing skills are out the gate, mate. His singing,
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: he's cut to guitar playing skills and he was like
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: jamming away, jamming away and he was going through the
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: song and he was playing the guitar particularly full on, really,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: really rough as gut. And I saw one of his
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: guitar strings go ping and fly off the fretboard and
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: sort of fly around and then hit the side of
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: his guitar. And he didn't flinch. He did not flinch.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: He just kept going and just completely improvised and changed
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: his tune, quite literally. And yeah, I just thought, wow,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: if that's not musicianship, I don't know what is. Just
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: some of these people who are so talented, but You know, sadly,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: as I say, someone like Chris Cornell, yeah, I mean,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: I would have, yeah, I would have loved to have
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: gone to a Soundgarden concert. That's probably one regret I've
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: got in life is that I never went to that
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: or Smashing Pumpkins, actually, when they came to Christchurch. But anyway,
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: moving on.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Now, your Dunedin days after going to school in Oamaru
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: actually caught up with an old schoolmate the other day.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: He actually thought you became a priest.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, I did anyhow. Well, you know, I'm a very
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: priestly type of person, you know, like I've, Yeah, I'm
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: very devoid of sinful behaviour, Andy, so I'm not surprised
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: that he would have thought that. You know, the amount
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: of times that I've been to confession, I could probably
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: count on my hand. And, you know, I amputated my
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: fingers all except my thumb last week. So, you know...
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Your what? Big thumbs up there. But, no, big thumbs down.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Didn't become a priest. Although, you know.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I kind of have been living a priestly life,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: you know. I've been single for a while, so, yeah.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Thomas O'Brien, single and ready to mingle. Put that on
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: your profile, lad.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Classic.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Anyway, mate, look, the Kingston Flyer, you're the engineer there.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: It's a pretty prestigious title. We've talked about the flyer
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: with you a lot because it's a part of southern folklore,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: but it's due to be up and running again.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: This is awesome. I love it.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, mate, yeah, look, we're very excited at the Kingston Flyer.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: We spent the weekend just doing a bit of work there.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Neville and Miles and Dave and myself did a bit
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: of work on the engine. Neville was inside the firebox
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: replacing pretty much all of the fire bars. We replaced
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: some of the two major superheater tubes, which need replacing.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: We replaced the spark arrestor, did a bit of work
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: on that. The main pressure gauge needs to be refitted.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: The engine's going to have a bit of a touch-up paint,
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: so that'll be black paint. So that'll look really good
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: against the bright brass, which will be shined up beautifully.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: The carriage is almost completely finished painting those. Got to
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: replace some brake blocks on the engine as well. But
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: we've got our first run on Tuesday, our chartered run
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: on Tuesday. with the Peter Hillary, Sir Edmund Hillary's son,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Peter Hillary Trust. They quite regularly come through and do
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: a run with us. So we're pretty excited. I always
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: have a mixture of nerves and excitement when we have
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: the start of the season, but look, we've got a
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: great crew, really, really positive, good people on board, so
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: to speak. So yeah, we're pumped, mate. We're ready. We're
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: building up steam and we're ready to go.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Do you put the dungarees on and look like one
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: of these guys bootlegging moonshine in the south?
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. It depends on the day, mate. Yeah, look,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: some of the guys, the engineers, they get right into
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: it and it's full credit to them and it's probably
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: a bit of a deficiency on my part because I'm
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: not really consistent in that space. Sometimes I'll sort of
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: turn up with looking a bit rough and ready and
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: all the rest of it. But some of these guys, yeah,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: they do put in a much better effort. They've got
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: the proper NZR train hat with the um you know
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: with the uh with the old logo and emblem and
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: they've got a tie i mean i've still got my
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: tie but i hardly ever wear it because i find
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: it a bit annoying wearing a tie um while you're
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: trying to shovel coal and and uh do all that
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: stuff but that's just my piss poor excuse i suppose
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: um but yeah i mean you know yeah wearing wearing
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: a pair of overalls helps because you know there's coal
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: dust and grease and oil and everything everywhere but um
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: but yeah it is part of the uniform and i
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: have to admit like i'm going to put more of
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: an effort into uh Having a bit of a better
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: presentation in that space and there's an expectation that everybody,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: including the guards and anyone who works for the flyer,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: you know, presents themselves as well as the mechanics of
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: the beautiful vintage icon that it is.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: And let's remember NZR is New Zealand Railways, not New
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Zealand Rugby.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Correct. In this particular case, yes, correct. Yeah. Although bearing
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: in mind that it's not New Zealand Railway or it's
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: not New Zealand Government Railways that actually owns or runs
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: the trains. It is a private consortium that owns it.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: So how many people are qualified to operate the Kingston Fly?
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: You don't drive it, you steer it, I suppose. You're
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: an operator.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, you are a driver as such. I mean,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: it kind of steers itself because you're on rails, right?
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: So if you attempted to try to steer it, then, yeah,
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: you'd probably come unstuck and be off the rails a bit. But, yeah,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I guess the term is driving. But a lot of
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: people sort of say, oh, you know, how hard is
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: it to stoke the flyer? And it's like, well, no,
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: that's not quite the right terminology.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: That's good.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: You stoke a boat and you fire a train. So
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: you've got to be very, very particular about that.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: You could chuck that on your Tinder too, mate.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: No, I didn't. Oh, look, I deleted that app. That's
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: like going to the casino. I'm playing really well. I'm
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: losing every time, mate. Black or red, I'm always in
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: the red when it comes to that crap. So, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: And then you go to play poker and, you know,
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: I might as well just be the joker, you know. Like, oh, yeah,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: they didn't take that card out of the pack. Here
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: comes the joker, you know. The king of hearts, he's
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: somewhere else, clearly. But anyway, how many people are qualified
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: to drive the Kingston flight? That's a very good question.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, you asked me this question about how many
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: sleepers were on the track. And I think we said
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: about 22,000. And I don't know if you've done the
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: fact check or not, and I don't know when I'm
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: going to get my coffee out of you. Next time
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: when I come to Gore, I suppose, because I reckon
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: I would have proved you wrong. But I'm going to
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: take a wild stab in the dark that there's probably,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: I don't know, there's probably seven or eight people in
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: the Otago, Southland area that are qualified to drive the flyer.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: It's a bit of a guess, yeah.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: How long does it take to get qualified then? I mean,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: you don't set a course or anything. It's just time
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: on the saddle, I'd presume.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a combination of practical and theory, Andy. So,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, back in my day, you know, when I
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: sort of first started many, many years ago, I was
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: fortunate enough when it was actually owned by New Zealand
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Government Railways to get the hours under the belt that
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: I needed because it was full time. You know, it
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: was going every day, pretty much every day, five days
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: a week. up to three times a day. So you
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: could really pump the hours out and you could really
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: get the experience under that. In that time, it was
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: under the guidance of the grandfather of steam trains, Russell
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: Glenn Denning, rest in peace. So working alongside Russell and
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: the likes of Keith and Neville Simpson and those guys
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: in particular, Um, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a lot
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: harder nowadays because you don't, you're not getting the same
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: number of hours. Um, and there's, there's probably not the same, uh,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: amount of, or the same number of, of older experienced
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: qualified people around who could give you the time. you know?
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: But yeah, it takes a couple of years. It usually
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: takes a couple of years anyway.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Tom. We'll leave it there. Always appreciate
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: your time and good luck for next week.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Andy. We'll see you on the
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: steam train at some stage.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Tom O'Brien.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Train driving extraordinaire. You're listening to The Muster. Before we
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: wrap up, resident sporting guru Nathan Burden. What is happening
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: with New Zealand rugby and its structure?