I checked out of YHA Wellington with a sense of profound relief. Sue had been kind enough to offer me a ride to Palmerston North, so I'd cancelled my Wellington-to-Palmerston-North bus ticket. I just won't use that part of my bus pass. Sue drove me first to an impressive overlook in the Rimutaka Hills, and then to the Fell Engine Museum. Fell Engines turned out to be small steam locomotives used to provide additional horsepower on a steep grade. The two-story museum included models of the settlements at both ends of the slope, with the higher village, of course, on the second floor. An unusually good documentary film was shown as an introduction to the collection. It explained how the engines worked, and in particular how the trains were kept braked and in control on the
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