Union Foundry Rail Tractor 39 (Central Plateau) Raetihi, North Island, New Zealand
By radionut50 on 09-Mar-13. Waypoint GC47DG1

With rustynz who found it in 2022. Rebel98 says he is giving it an oil change?

During our overnight stay in Raetihi we also tracked down and logged this box. TFTC

Very thorough hint

Nice hide. Although the hint made it very obvious

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I live full-time in our caravan travelling around NZ, visiting the places we want to visit & doing the things we want to do and fitting in a bit of Geocaching here & there we are currently heading South again decided to stop off here to grab this cache as we needed a cache today & this fitted in nicely as a parkngrab as we passed thru Raetahi also gave us a chance to stretch our legs an easy find, signed the logbook with difficulty as its damp & very difficult to write on & then we replaced the cache were pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally TFTC ... TN:LN:LS #5,935 for Us!

Travelled from Ohakune back home to the Kpiti Coast today and stopped for half a dozen caches along the way. This one was a relatively quick find on this interesting piece of equipment. #7591. TFTC.

A quick owners check today. Took a little searching to find it, as it was not where the very detailed hint describes. All ok and returned to the correct spot on the machine. It is better protected from the rain in the right spot, but the inner tube generally keeps the log dry anyhow.The purpose of this cache is to show you this historic artifact, not to make you crawl around a machine in public, so please read the hint when searching, and when returning the cache.

Found it!

It took a bit to open the cache, got there in the end. A nice, quick, easy, find, grab, sign, and flee. TFTC

After visiting family up north, Nanna and I are heading south again. Breaking up the journey with cache stops, this was a good distance, but I planned to see how busy it was. As we pulled into the ample parking, there was no one around, so it was a go. Great hint meant I didn't look suspicious, thank you. All is well here and great to stop and see a bit more of the town.

Awesome find... Makes road tripping with kids lots more fun...

Found after following the hint. Liked the new logbook. Very cool surprising simple machine that was built to last rather than being comfortable . TFTC

Checked out the cache today, and found the cache in the correct place, but log needed replacing. All tidied up, and returned to the rail tractor ready for the next search.

Nice hiding place! Left my wooden coin as a gift.

Super easy - great location. Beautiful Makotuku walk nearby is well worth a wander along. TFTC

After years on our bucket list and three cancellations due to Covid, we are thrilled to finally be here. Following several cruises we flew from Sydney, Australia to Wellington, New Zealand to begin our next adventure. Picked up our rental vehicle and will be driving, exploring, hiking, and caching both islands for 3.5 weeks. The pool next door was full of kids and parents swimming, so parking was at a premium, but we managed to find a spot. These types of hides usually take lots of searching, but thankfully the detailed hint helped us get our ink on the log without any muggles figuring out our reason for stopping. Very cool piece of equipment that we weren't familiar with. Mount Ruapehu was stunning today. Thanks for adding to our adventure today, Nukeworker and Racquetball Girl, Arkansas, USA

19:45The Swiss cacher family with Spiess, J_walk, MsSophie and Drayah visited also New Zealand and this cache. TFTC!

The Swiss cacher family with Spiess, J_walk, MsSophie and Drayah visited also New Zealand and this cache. TFTC!

The Swiss cacher family with Spiess, J_walk, MsSophie and Drayah visited also New Zealand and this cache. TFTC!

The Swiss cacher family with Spiess, J_walk, MsSophie and Drayah visited also New Zealand and this cache. TFTC!

Quick drive by, fun to find. Couldn't open tho, stiff for some reason. Chilly stop here today! Tftc.

Fun find while out exploring

FOUND IT.

Driving north home, nice easy find in the dark, tftc

Passing thru and stopped to have a look tftc

Day 11 on our holiday in New Zealand. Today we are in the area and surrounding area of Wellington, and then we go to Ruapehu. We also visited this tradi, found it, and signed the logbook.



***T4T$ - Many Thanks to radionut50 for hiding and maintaining of this cache s*** ️

*#9776
Back in Germany I now want to log my finds in this beautiful country. Thanks to the owners for their work and care. With some cases, of course, also a favorite point remains.
TFTC*

Found it difficult to open, gave it a sharp tap on nearby table which did the trick.

Some very cool machinery in Raetihi. Good hide. TFTC

After arriving in Wellington by ferry I drove to the north and stopped for a night in Raitihi. On a short walk at the evening I passed the very old tractor and signed the logbook.
Thanks for hidding.

Nice to turn this into a smilie after a DNF in 2018. Nice to see the development advancing here, looking good! Tftc!

Found with Nutty Nora on a damp day. TFTC

Fabulous! I used to love playing on Le machines as a child!!! All good today. TFTC

This is my 500th. TFTC

Almost muggle central here today, but after a while they cleared out allowing for a quick access and find, great hide here, cheers

Incredible machine, glad they kept it. Tftc

Fount it

Found with TuiStorm, very hard to exercise stealth but cool nonetheless, thanks for the hide

Found by Mackenzie and Xavier

Clean up time for the cache. Removed two wet log sheets others had inserted, replaced the o ring on the bison tube that contains the real log, and inserted a new log there too.. All ready for the next cacher.

**16,147**
After a chilly night snuggled up in our van it was time to continue our journey to Whanganui so we were up long before most of the locals so this was a nice quick find, with a very specific hint, by torchlight. TFTC

Decided to stop for a break from driving and look for this one. What an awesome walkway by the river! Thanks to your hint I soon had the cache in hand. So the log book has been signed and the cache is nicely back in its place all ready for the next geo-hunter. Thanks heaps for taking the time to set up this cache. I really appreciate your efforts in doing so. TFTC

On way to welly, but got to whanganui {;D]

Pulled over and with the help of a great hint, found the cache straight away. The container was full of water, but the log was all good, had no problems signing.

Thanks for the hide, looks like they have been doing some landscaping/improvements to the area, with a cycle/walkway.

Thanks radionut50 for the history and the hide

First time in raetihi! Lovely sunny day to be out geocaching with ziggy ziggy star

More interesting history, the 1980s photo sure contrasts with today. I suppose it is difficult to keep everything under cover for posterity. Found with Kauriforest in our geocaching morning in the area. TFTC

Out exploring and picking up caches. Accident has close the road so be as far as I go today. Tftc.

Last year the tractor was cordoned off so we couldn’t retrieve the cache. Today I had a little bit of fun sitting on the machine. TFTC

We are staying in town tonight, off on some bike adventures tomorrow. Always make a point of finding at least one cache in each place we stay!

Passing through three years after our previous attempt and delighted to be able to replace the blue frown with a yellow smile. TFTC

Thanks radionut50 for the cache. It’s #1563 for us. We found your cache on 31 December 2021. Quick find after reading hint. All in good order today.

The area has been under development for a while, so we wandered past today to check out the tractor. It has had a scrub up, which created some concern for the cache at first, but the box was found safely clipped on in the correct place as described in the hint.

Find number 7732. On a trip with my daughter. She is doing the Te Araroa Trail and I am being her support for a few days. Today was to drive to Raetihi in preparation for starting the Whanganui paddle tomorrow. After checking in at the camp ground we wandered around the town. I was surprised by how much there was and the age of some of the buildings.
Nice quick find here. These sort of machines turn up in extraordinary places. Cache all good. Thank you for the placement

Awesome little park area being developed

A pity Number 39 isn’t looking so good in retirement. The area and walkway behind no. 39 is looking good - the planting and the art work. TFTC radionut50 for the history and the cache.

Found the log book on the floor in the mud. Put it back in the cache box. Nice spot

Easy find, thanks, neat little machine. I could not open the box, combine chill factor and arthritis... have photo if you like or delete this? Thanks!

This was a really cool one!

Team BOP is back on the road this time heading to Taranaki with our sights set on some Labs, some geo-art & everything else in between Today was our last day and we've decided to head home via Whanganui to grab some of the high FP caches in the area. We found this one during the trip North and I must admit - I secretly enjoy these ones.

Our current incarnation includes Davidson Clan, NZFlossy, McJandals and myself and we’ve signed the cache logs as ‘Team BOP’ to save time and log space. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the journey as most caches have been found quickly & without fuss thanks to accurate coords and a straight forward placements.

I appreciate there’s a stigma attached to cut’n’paste logs like these so I’ll try to provide cache specific notes retrospectively when I get home. We do genuinely respect the work put into these caches, particularly some of the puzzles, but with a numbers mission like this - the hides start to blur together unfortunately. So Cheers COs, TFTC and most importantly - thanks for bringing us here

On a weekend trip to Taranaki with some of Team BOP. Always lots of fun on these trips targeting cache trails, solved puzzles and high favourites. Thanks to all the cache owners TFTC

A plan was hatched recently to hit the Naki area this long weekend. Nice to get away and grab a lot of our solved puzzles and ALs plus others along the way. Signed logs Team BoP to save room on log sheets.

I am logging using the Cachly app template so please excuse generic logging along the way. It’s just my way of keeping track, but I do genuinely thank each and every one of you cache owners for taking the time and energy to place these caches. Many Thanks for bringing me here. Cheers.

Thanks for the find.

Found today with grumpydba - nice walk as the sun came out

unlike the previous log i had no problem here, the fence has gone, knew where to look and soon had the cache in hand, longer arms would have helped, tftc

The loco is currently not accessible, fenced off looks like work is in progress.

Still drizzling in town we dashed out to grab this one. Was a quick find as hubby knew exactly where all the parts listed were located. Had more trouble getting in to sign the log! Signed and put back ready for the next finder. Sat in the car and ate our lunch since it was a nice pullover area. TFTC

Great colored patterns. T4tcsl

Great hint. Quick find but struggled opening container. Tftcsl

Nice quick find and dry log. Travelling through and stayed at camp next door. Best camp toilet block in NZ
TFTC

Day 10 of my trip around the North Island, exploring and finding some geocaches. Thanks for hiding radionut50.

Day 8 of a road trip with Saethwr around the lower North Island. Caching not a priority, but we will get a few.
Ohakune to Bridge to Nowhere and return.
A few caches on the way back (a DNF at the bridge - its a busy place..)
An interesting piece of old machinery - hardly a speck of blue on it now. There were some ingenious brains working in early forestry days to create the machinery needed to haul out logs. I've recently researched our bush trams for an upcoming Southland cache. It appears that we had the highest concentration of such machinery in the world, much of it adapted from existing tractors and the like before someone went into business making bespoke vehicles.
Pulled up right next to it to de-kink after out trip back from Pipiriki. Sussed out the probably location and after waiting out some pedestrians while relaxing in the back of the camper, Saethwr went for the "kill". Thanks to the explicit instructions she had it in hand in seconds. Opening was another story.... A little damp inside so a quick wipe out before the signed log was replaced and we headed back to Ohakune.
Thanks for the smilie radionut50.
2744 23 January 2021 17:00

An interesting tale about an interesting artefact.
We admired the work in the little valley beside the cache and were rewarded with our first glimpse of Ruapehu.

all quiet today. good bit of history here. nice new plantings here.

The boy microcacher loved this one as he loves old machinery. Thank you for making him very happy ️

Quick easy find aroha and happy caching

We were grateful for a clear hint, otherwise it may have taken a while! TFTC!!

Nice and easy find on my way to Levin during last day of the year.
Super funny hide!
TFTC

What a cool piece of machinery. Kids loved looking around the town for old stuff. TFTC

At the beginning of a very unexpected trip travelling to central North Inland on some unusual roads and staying at a small oy of the way 'township" . we left early, travelled through Whanganui where we had morning tea, and the up to rangitau where we were staying.
A days outing to raetihi where i have only been through once that i recall. It is looking rather sad but the cafe provided a wonderful morning tea .
thank you for this cache

A bit of a fixer upper.

Facil

Easy find

Wasn't an easy find but Deonrocks managed it. TFTC

Very accurate instructions to what we thought would be microscopic.....seems big but then we are in heartland country...big carrots, big everything. Neat old crawler, no time for us to investigate further so thanks for your informative description, tftc

Having moved my snail shell to National Park from Taumarunui it was time to go and sign off a few caches for the Wonders Of the World Challenge.

No clouds today so the mountains are in full splendour.

Had to be a bit stealthy here as there was a muggle having his lunch at a nearby table.

Cheers for the cache.

A nice and easy find. What an amazing track they’ve done nearby. Thank you for bringing us here. TFTC!

Had to wait a while for a contractor to finish his nearby work but that did give us the opportunity to see the new walk and pump track in close proximity. Great to see this piece of functional engineering, thanks for providing the history. Returned cache discretely, TFTC!!

Funny... found it without looking. TFTC.

Funny old thing, hard to imagine it ever running. Thanks

Followed the descriptive hint, found the cache, nice one!

On the move from Blenheim to Auckland and I'm the advance party. I get to arrive first, get the rental keys, clean it, received the house pack and set up the house, collect the cat off the plane on Wednesday and greet mrs capperz on Thursday! Phew, a busty few days ahead it seems. But first I get from South to North and overnight in Bulls. A plan to catch up with our daughter later on Saturday left me with a few hours 'spare' so what better than to continue with the SHIELD series. I'd made a start one day over Christmas and with nearly all the solves done the puzzle pieces on my map were so tempting. A good day to drive around those back roads, less unsealed than I'd thought and only a handful of DNFs.
Today was the next stage of that journey and although the cache finds were less there was a lot of country to cover, and a deadline to meet to get there, less quantity, more quality.
Left Wanga-Vegas at 0730 and got to Base Auckland at 1630 so not too bad timings to get there in the intermittent rain and sun.

Checked out the hide, all correct, in the right place, dry and well hidden.

At first glance, I couldn't tell the front from the back. After I got that figured out, I was able to apply the hint and find the cache. TFTC.

First one after a bit of a lockdown. Awesomeness. Tftc

We have gone down to Alert 3 in our Covid-19 lockdown, and Geocaching is now allowed, so time to re-enable the caches.

DISABLING THIS CACHE TO DISCOURAGE HUNTING DURING THE COVID-19 LOCK-DOWN. NEW LOGS AFTER TODAY MAY BE DELETED. THE CACHE WILL BE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Our caching journey with AF-Bee, GeoWench78 and 6ftzp&1/2zip continues as our time in NZ is coming to a close. This was neat tractor and enjoyed looking at it from a mechanical point of view. Thanks radionut50 for bring us here to marvel.

Found with AF BEE, 6ftzpr&1/2zip, and ondago while on a geocaching vacation. Thanks for placing this cache.

Very interesting vehicle. TFTFun

OCW GeoWench78, ondago and 6ftzpr&1/2zip between Palmerston North and Taupo...nice piece of old machinery...TFTC!

Greetings from the UK. Thank heavens I found this one as I couldnt find the other two and the muggles traveling with me were getting mighty restless.

TFTC

m n m 45.

Thanks for this cache, great to visit this area whilst other family members canoeing on the nearby Whanganui River. A great piece of mechanical history. Cache quickly found, signed and replaced as found.