Trouble on the Track
Book review by Trevor Agnew
Trouble on the Track (2013) Jane Buxton, ill. Lynnley Driver, Clerestory Press, Christchurch NZ, 32 pages, paperback. ISBN 978 0 9922517 0 3
This story, told in verse follows the career of a railway
engine, No 428. The story begins as 428’s career seems to have ended in
disaster. Her driver Jack is unable to avoid a collision with a hostile bull.
The bull survives, but 428 is badly damaged, and her work is taken over by
scornful new diesel locomotives.
“You’re just a
worn-out rattle-trap.
They’re going to
cut you up for scrap.”
Rusting and forgotten, 428 is rescued by volunteers from
the Weka Pass Railway and towed up the line to Glenmark Station, north of Christchurch. There she is
dismantled and her parts are “straightened,
welded, forged and mended.” In a happy conclusion, 428 is renewed and ready
to run on the Weka Pass line.
Her old driver, Jack Tate, is
delighted to be re-united with his old engine.
“Jack now drives the tourist train
through Weka Pass and back again.”
Jane Buxton’s cheerful tale
brings personality to the steam engine, and Lynnley Driver’s vigorous colour
illustrations capture the ups-and-downs of 428’s unusual progress to her
present status as a beloved Canterbury icon.
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