New Zealand Railways Today

[Nick Gough]

We recently made our first visit, for a holiday, to New Zealand and managed to sample what remains of their long distance railway network.

 

Much truncated and largely given over to freight traffic there are currently three surviving long-distance passenger services - mainly for tourists.

 

The 'Northern Explorer' runs between Auckland and Wellington, on the North Island, six days a week. The train runs north, to Auckland, on alternate days with the southbound service, to Wellington, on the other three days.

We joined the train at Hamilton, about two & half hours after its Auckland departure, for an eight hour journey to its southern terminus:

[Nick Gough]

Hamilton is a junction station where the freight only East Coast Main Trunk branches off from the North Island Main Trunk.

Looking north from the end of the platform the NIMT is on the left and ECMT on the right:

 

In the opposite direction:

 

I think it's fairly obvious, in this shot, that New Zealand's railway network is built to the narrow gauge of 3'6".

 

Inside Hamilton's waiting room is a nice nod to the past:

[ChrisN]

There seems so much space around.  It is all sky and no buildings.  Look forward to more posts.

[Guest]

Enjoy the spiral. It is quite something!

[Annie]

10 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

We recently made our first visit, for a holiday, to New Zealand and managed to sample what remains of their long distance railway network.

 

Much truncated and largely given over to freight traffic there are currently three surviving long-distance passenger services - mainly for tourists.

Our own brand of useless brain dead Tories savaged our rail system back in the 1960s and 1970s in much the same way as happened in Britain.  They were very much in the pocket of the road transport sector with predictable results.  But that's enough from me and I won't say any more about it.

[Nick Gough]

18 hours ago, ChrisN said:

There seems so much space around.  It is all sky and no buildings.  Look forward to more posts.

There is. With a population of just over 5 million there is a lot of open country and distances between towns/settlements compared to the UK:

 

[Nick Gough]

18 hours ago, Gatesheadgeek said:

Enjoy the spiral. It is quite something!

Coming soon!

[Nick Gough]

10 hours ago, Annie said:

Our own brand of useless brain dead Tories savaged our rail system back in the 1960s and 1970s in much the same way as happened in Britain.  They were very much in the pocket of the road transport sector with predictable results.  But that's enough from me and I won't say any more about it.

Yes, we soon found out about this from our guide. Similar to the 'coincidental' connection between Ernest Marples and Marples Ridgway Construction Ltd. in the UK.

[Nick Gough]

The North Island Main Trunk railway is mostly single-track. It couldn't be described as a high speed railway since it tends to follow the contours, so there are several sharp bends and steep gradients - the narrow gauge helps:

 

One big plus point with the tourist trains is the windowless, open-air viewing carriages:

Though they do get very busy in the more scenic sections.

 

Also, being immediately behind the locomotive:

When the loco is working hard there can be a lot of diesel fumes.

[Nick Gough]

As touched on earlier - the Raurimu Spiral:

 

It can be difficult to appreciate these engineering features properly from track level:

 

But it's always fascinating to see where you where, a couple of minutes ago, at a different level:

[Nick Gough]

Having climbed the spiral, the railway heads south across the volcanic plateau, one of the filming locations for the 'Lord of the Rings' series:

[Guest]

Wait until you get onto the South Island. Scenery becomes even more spectacular. 

[Nick Gough]

Going back to the early part of the journey - what appeared to be a disused goods shed/wharehouse opposite Hamilton station:

 

Then the first stop, about 35 minutes, after Hamilton:

[Nick Gough]

Continuing with the journey, on the Northern Explorer, in certain places the route has been realigned as part of upgrade schemes.

At Hapuawhenua the original metal viaduct was replaced in the 1980s by a concrete structure, but the original has been maintained as a tourist attraction and walking/cycling route:

 

Timber yard and sidings at Karioi Forest, south of Ohakune:

 

Thanks to a horseshoe curve, at Turangarere, we get a good view of the bridge over the Hautapu river, that we had passed over a couple of minutes before:

We had travelled left to right over the bridge and were now travelling in the opposite direction.

 

At Taihape although the station has gone the turntable is still in place:

[Nick Gough]

The next station stop was at Palmerston North, where there are extensive railway yards:

Palmerston North is also the northern terminus for the 'Capital Connection' long distance commuter service to and from Wellington. This consists of one morning train to Wellington with an evening return. Its next station being:

 

About 25 minutes later:

Where we crossed the Otaki river in the fading light:

 

By this time we were getting close to the western coast, where the railway runs alongside the sea for several miles. Unfortunately, we were about half an hour late, by this time, and with the autumn evenings we were pretty much in the dark for this section:

 

 

[Nick Gough]

Journeys end at the buffer stops at Wellington's terminus station, just after 7pm:

 

One of Wellington's suburban trains can be seen in the background:

 

 

The open-air viewing carriage:

 

The coach we had travelled in:

 

Then it was collect the luggage and off to our hotel - which was only one block away from the station.

[Nick Gough]

The following day was the opportunity to re-visit the, impressive, Wellington station in daylight:

 

 

 

 

(Sorry about the focus!)

 

 

 

[Nick Gough]

Inside the booking hall:

 

 

 

 

 

At the road entrance is a very nice sign:

 

I'm sure that I've seen that shape of loco somewhere before?

 

Earlier in the day, during a tour of the city, we had gone to the viewpoint at the summit of Mount Victoria:

Looking across the harbour the railway station can be seen, behind the ship, just a short distance from the harbourside and ferries to the South Island.

[Nick Gough]

On the main shopping street in Wellington there is another interesting sign:

 

Walk a short distance along Cable Car Lane and you find the lower terminus for the Wellington Cable Car:

 

The line is a metre-gauge single track funicular, 628 metres long, with a central passing loop for the two cars:

 

The driver's cabin:

 

Nearing the summit of the climb:

 

 

[Annie]

Oh yes if you were in Wellington you had to have a ride on the cable car.  😁

[Johann Marsbar]

Sadly you can't ride on anything like this there anymore.......

 

[Nick Gough]

47 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

Sadly you can't ride on anything like this there anymore.......

 

Nice. When were they withdrawn?

 

I can remember riding on one of the last London trolleybuses just before they went.

[Johann Marsbar]

28 minutes ago, Nick Gough said:

Nice. When were they withdrawn?

 

I can remember riding on one of the last London trolleybuses just before they went.

 

I took that photo on a trip to NZ back in 1993.  The (Privatised) Wellington undertaking had recently been taken over by Stagecoach and a few of the trolleybuses had started to appear in their livery. We had a few, rather short, rides on them on that trip, which was just as well as the next time I was in Wellington (2000) it was a weekend and they only ran Mon-Fri at that time!

After several years of indecision, they obtained some 60 new vehicles from 2003-2009 but the system was completely shut down in 2017.

[Nick Gough]

Adjacent to the upper terminus is the original winding house:

Which housed the winding machinery used until the 1970s. It now houses the Cable Car museum.

 

The winding gear, originally steam powered, electrified in the 1930s:

 

 

One of the original cars:

 

 

 

Originally the cable car was powered by a continuous cable. In a similar system to the San Francisco cable cars, each car had a 'Gripman':

The 'gripman' of the descending car operated a lever which gripped the cable, causing it to descend. A second cable connected the two cars together, so that the descending car also pulled the other to the top:

 

There was also a third 'Fell' rail, between the running rails, for emergency braking:

Also the line had double track for its entire length.

 

In the current system the two cars are permanently connected to a single cable, operated by a motorised pulley at the top, which stops and starts to control the system.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Cable_Car

[Nick Gough]