Fell Locomotive museum

We went to the Featherston Museum on Saturday morning and then to the Fell Locomotive museum next door. Really interesting history around this area. 

There was an army camp in WW1 and in WW2 a Japanese Prisoner of War camp was here. A lot of the Japanese soldiers were shot. Originally they said it was a riot, but later it came out that it wasn't. Some of the prisoners were shot in the back. I am still not sure what it was all about, but a blot on our history all the same. There is a rest area just out of Featherston that is a memorial to the men who were shot. One of the New Zealand guards had a brother who had been beheaded at a Japanese prisoner of war camp. He did a lot of shooting on the day. I think he must have been in a very deep grief. 

The Fell railway was invented by a man called John Barroclough Fell. The track has 3 rails. The one in the middle allows the engine to grip when they are going up hill. Not many of the systems were set up in the world and the  museum at Featherston is the only one in the world. The train ran from Ocober 1878 until October 1955. In November 1978, a walking and biking route was opened. It is 17 ks long and goes from Featherston to Kaitoke.

The inside cover of the book we got from the museum.

The wagon in the back ground is the brake van that traveled at the back of the train. 

There are scale models of the track. This is the area known as Siberia.