When Dave Oakley was a youngster he would save his pocket money to ride trains at The Plains Railway & Historic Museum at the southern end of Tinwald.
Today, he doesn’t have to pay for his train rides.
He is an official plains railway driver.
Oakley has been a member there for about 43 years and said he still thoroughly enjoys trains.
“I would come to The Plains in the late 1970’s on a Sunday afternoon and ride all the trains running before buying train postcards and heading home a happy boy.”
From being a school boy passenger, he started heading over to held at the Saturday working bees.
He enjoyed tinkering with things.
‘‘I get satisfaction out of fixing and repairing old things.
‘‘I have learned lots of skills here, not only driving skills but other transferable skills for work and around home,’’ Oakley said.
While all of the old members he learnt from are no longer around, he has stepped into the void to teach the next generation.
He said he was happy to pass on his knowledge to ensure a future for The Plains as it told the history of the past.
The complex was run entirely by volunteers.
Oakley is current track instructor manager and in the past four decades has been shop manager, operations manager, in charge of rural history and severed many years on the committee.
Oakley has been a train driver for about 25 years now and was one of two drivers on site, but others were in various stages of training.
Being a train driver involved sitting driver’s licence qualifications, before driving passengers.
The type of licence depended on the type of locomotive.
For the diesel locomotive used during the summer months, drivers undertake in-house training.
Those learning to drive work along experienced and qualified drivers until they are qualified enough to move from second man to driver.
The steam locomotive requires a NZQA qualification and experience in boiler work and as a fire man were part of the necessary training.
Getting qualifications in such areas can open door to careers, Oakley said.
Volunteering at The Plains can also be a starting point.
‘‘We’ve had young one come through here get qualifications and now working for places like Fonterra in the boiler house or at KiwiRail,’’ he said.
The Plains has three historic steam locomotives: K88, Ja1260 and A64 – Vintage Railcar Rm50 – DSA218 as well as a fleet of shunters.
