route and he got to know many of the
sailors who bought a Christchurch Press
or a Star-Sun paper from him. He often
was given breakfast in the galley of
these ships. He went to high school
in Greymouth after his father got a
job there.
Denniston was famous for its ‘incline’
(called by some the eighth wonder of
the world) which was how coal was
transported from the mine to the town
below using gravity.
A wagon full of coal descended the
steeply sloped single track which ran
on cuttings and wooden bridges. A wire
rope attached to the loaded wagon ran
through a mechanism at the top of the
incline and pulled an empty wagon from
the town up to the mine as the loaded
wagon travelled downwards. The empty
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halfway down (or up) on a short stretch
of double track. There was plenty that
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consequences of a failure of the wire
rope almost defy imagination.A happy ending
Dennis’s family were living in
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billiard salon and was a champion
player. Wilheim was a Gallipoli veteran
and he is documented as having sur vived
a Turkish shot to his chest because the
bullet was stopped by his Bible which
he carried in his tunic breast pocket.
Dennis tells me that he has inherited
some skill with the cue and has won pub
pool tournaments.
The Jeep passed its compliance retest
and is now back on the road. Its brakes
work a lot better too. You hear horror
stories about the rigors of compliance
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it was expensive: $450 for the compliance
testing and $240 for the registration.Dennis and the plastic welding manual that he
has compiled. The sharp-eyed reader will spot
a number of Dremels hanging from the raftersRoad-legal Jeep and owner. The welds in
the bumper will be hidden by the bull bars
when they are fitted