The Ab608 Passchendaele steam train passing under Palmerston Bridge, Otago in October 2015 on its centennial tour of the South Island.

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Details

Brand: Acrylic/Oil

weight: 4.0 g

Product Code: Ab608

Product Condition: New

Description

SOLD - Private Collection

The Ab608 Passchendaele steam train passing under Palmerston Bridge, Otago in October 2015 on its centennial tour of the South Island.

The train was built in memory of those members of the New Zealand Railways who fell in the great war 1914-1918.

Note: A beautiful brass plaque has been attached to the back of the painting with the title, medium, year completed and my name and website - see image below.

The History of the Ab608
World War I Memorial Locomotive Passchendaele (1915).

In 1925, New Zealand Railways wished to exhibit AB608 at the South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin, alongside the historic Double Fairlie engine built in 1872.

It was felt AB 608 should have a name if to be displayed alongside “Josephine” – the Minister of Railways, Gordon Coates agreed that the engine could be named in memoriam for the more than 5000 railwaymen that served in World War One. After rejecting the names “Somme”, “Le Quesnoy” and “Ypres”, “Passchendaele” was selected. Two plaques bearing the name “Passchendaele” were cast and affixed to the sides of the locomotive. NZ Railways had not named locomotives since the 1870s, and AB 608 was the largest, and last, locomotive to be given a name by them.

The Ab608 Passchendaele steam train passing under Palmerston Bridge, Otago in October 2015 on its centennial tour of the South Island.
Acrylic on Canvas
915mm x 660mm [ 36" x 26" ]
Completed July 2017

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