Conserving and restoring Grip Car 3 took nine months of meticulous work. Greg and Ali Lang and the rest of the team at The Wheelwright Shop carefully dismantled the grip car, cleaning and repairing all its components before the car was reassembled. Any timber too damaged or decayed to repair was replaced with timber of matching species, and all finishes were stripped off and reapplied.
A conservation plan
The conservation and restoration work was carried out in line with heritage transport specialist Colin Perfect’s detailed conservation plan and in accord with the guiding principles of the ICOMOS International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites, the principles of which can also be applied to the conservation and retention of historic vehicles. The objective: to keep any intervention to a minimum while still preserving the grip car and restoring it to its 1905 appearance.
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TOP: Steelwork was sandblasted before being reassembled and painted
BOTTOM: Gold leaf lettering for the car’s signage |
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Detective work
The restoration of Grip Car 3 involved a considerable amount of detective work – referring to early photographs, to physical signs on the car itself and using additional technical expertise – to determine some aspects of its original appearance. Colin Perfect and Greg Lang worked together to determine the details of some decorative features removed over the car’s years of service, such as the wooden mouldings at the roofline and the oil light flues near the clerestory roof.
Other detective work included determining the type and gauge of the wire mesh screens at each end of the car. Alan Malaquin of Hurricane Wire Products in Christchurch was able to advise on this based on marks left on the car and from research into the type of mesh available at the time.
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TOP: Finishing touches
BOTTOM: Grip Car 3's new bell |
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Discoveries
One of the most striking discoveries made during Grip Car 3’s restoration was that its original paint colour was a dark green, rather than the bright red identified with the cable car system for many decades. Determining the original paint colours took some doing as the car had been repainted frequently. However, technical staff at Resene Paints were able to positively identify dark green as its first colour.
A generous donation
Cable cars traditionally carried a bell to signal their arrival and departure and to warn people to stand clear. While Grip Car 3 started life with such a bell mounted on top of its clerestory roof, it was removed in the 1930s when pantographs and other fittings were installed.
The Wellington Cable Car Museum was privileged to receive a genuine brass cable car bell as a donation from the San Francisco Cable Car Museum. This bell, which is now mounted on Grip Car 3, is virtually identical to the original. |
