New Zealand Railways Today

[Nick Gough]

13 hours ago, Annie said:

You were lucky to have had reasonable weather at Greymouth.  When I was there last it was raining like it was the place in the world where rain is stored when it's not being used elsewhere.  The rain was coming down like it was a solid wall of water and I was told by a couple of the local folk sheltering at a corner shop that this is fairly usual for Greymouth.

We were lucky. The following morning, after spending the night in Franz Josef, the rain was just like that for most of the day:

After another night we left, in the pouring rain, heading south crossing swollen rivers and avoiding some minor flooding on the coast road:

 

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes - thanks! Pity you didn't have time for lunch in the pub opposite Greymouth station.

 

It was glorious sunshine when we were there in April! We had weather like you've described a couple of days earlier though, driving across the Haast Pass.

The sun started to come out after we had come through the Pass:

 

And it was like this by the time we got toLake Hawea:

 

[Nick Gough]

Backtracking a little.

Having left the train at Greymouth, we made a short journey south to Shantytown:

 

This is an open air museum where around 30 heritage buildings have been gathered together to recreate a 19th century mining town:

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Nick Gough

[Nick Gough]

The museum has a short, former logging railway, used for giving passenger rides:

 

On our visit the train was diesel hauled:

 

On the return journey it stops at a sawmill:

 

Where this train could be seen:

[Nick Gough]

In one shed there were three steam, logging, locomotives on display:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nick Gough]

Two more locos were at the back of the workshop, next door:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nick Gough]

After the all too brief stop at Shantytown it was back, under this bridge:

 

 

back onto the main coast road, south to Franz Josef:

 

From Greymouth a freight only railway parallels the coast road south to the town of Hokitika (about 23 miles) with several other impressive bridges along the way:

 

 

 

 

As we drew closer to Franz Josef the locals came out in force to welcome us:

 

Despite the hold up, luckily we still arrived at our destination with just enough light to see the glacier snow on the top of the mountains:

 

 

Since the following two days it they would be invisible in the torrential rain.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Nick Gough
NOT the glacier!

[St Enodoc]

42 minutes ago, Nick Gough said:

After the all too brief stop at Shantytown it was back, under this bridge:

 

 

back onto the main coast road, south to Franz Josef:

 

From Greymouth a freight only railway parallels the coast road south to the town of Hokita (about 23 miles) with several other impressive bridges along the way:

 

 

 

 

As we drew closer to Franz Josef the locals came out in force to welcome us:

 

Despite the hold up, luckily we still arrived at our destination with just enough light to see the glacier:

 

 

Since the following two days it would be invisible in the torrential rain.

When we drove up that road (in the opposite direction) I was intrigued by the way the railway went straight through the middle of some roundabouts.

[Nick Gough]

Despite the bad weather, in Franz Josef, we had the opportunity to meet a couple of real Kiwis (the feathered variety), at the wildlife centre:

No photos since they were in a nocturnal habitat enclosure.

 

This one at the Haast Visitor Centre wasn't quite so lively:

[Nick Gough]

After Franz Josef our next destination was Queenstown, for four nights. This is a popular resort town on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. There never was a railway here but there is a strong railway connection - TSS Earnslaw is based here:

A triple expansion, twin-screwed steam ship, used by NZ Railways, to connect Queenstown with the railway terminus at Kingston at the south end of the lake (approximately 46 kilometres by road):

 

 

[Rhys]

On 20/07/2023 at 21:15, Nick Gough said:

Despite the hold up, luckily we still arrived at our destination with just enough light to see the glacier:

Since the following two days it would be invisible in the torrential rain.

Sorry, thats not the Glacier. it runs behind the spur on the left and much lower down the valley. you can just see a patch of it lower left above the spur line.. 35 years ago it was possible to walk up onto the lower/middle reaches of the glacier from the valley floor.

[St Enodoc]

3 minutes ago, Rhys said:

Sorry, thats not the Glacier. it runs behind the spur on the left and much lower down the valley. you can just see a patch of it lower left above the spur line.. 35 years ago it was possible to walk up onto the lower/middle reaches of the glacier from the valley floor.

Here's how it looked back in April:

 

 

 

and a distant view of Fox Glacier the previous afternoon in very poor weather, for good measure:

 

[Nick Gough]

1 hour ago, Rhys said:

Sorry, thats not the Glacier. it runs behind the spur on the left and much lower down the valley. you can just see a patch of it lower left above the spur line.. 35 years ago it was possible to walk up onto the lower/middle reaches of the glacier from the valley floor.

 

Whoops!

 

In my defence, I went on the glacier walk the following day:

To the permitted limit of the trail:

 

These were the viewing conditions:

 

[Barry O]

On 28/05/2023 at 14:59, Nick Gough said:

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:

Great Coffee at the station and good cafes on the main street..

 

Baz

[Barry O]

On 03/06/2023 at 18:03, Nick Gough said:

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:

 

 

At least you saw/phootgraphed the EE Electrics...been that way on 3 trips.. never seen one moving yet!

 

Baz

[Barry O]

If you go up the lake from Queenstown you reach Glenorchy

 

 

which had a "railway" line from the little pier to a "goods shed" shown above

 

 

one of the wagons used to move goods around.. Fascinating place!

Baz

[Nick Gough]

5 minutes ago, Barry O said:

If you go up the lake from Queenstown you reach Glenorchy

 

 

which had a "railway" line from the little pier to a "goods shed" shown above

 

 

one of the wagons used to move goods around.. Fascinating place!

Baz

Looks interesting.

Unfortunately we didn't get that far along the lake.

[Guest]

Did you travel through Haast Pass? It was a fantastic & totally unexpected journey through beech rainforest when I travelled that way nearly 20 years ago (eek, that’s a scary realisation!). 

I travelled in the other direction from Queenstown to Fox Glacier on an InterCity coach (their equivalent of National Express) and we were all taken aback when the driver asked over the PA whether anyone wanted to take a jet boat down the river. Someone said yes and, soon after, he turned the coach off the road onto the dry part of the river bed to meet with the jet boat for an interesting multi-modal interchange. You don’t get THAT on Megabus! That episode and stopping at weird wayside cafes and gift shops are my abiding memories of coach journeys through Otago. 

 

I was becoming used to eccentric coach behaviour by then. When I landed in Auckland to start my trip, the airport bus to Downtown turned off the road into a filling station to get more diesel. 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Guest
Spelling

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

At least you saw/phootgraphed the EE Electrics...been that way on 3 trips.. never seen one moving yet!

They are more than likely still awaiting repairs.  When our braindead Tories were in government they ran them into the ground claiming that they were too expensive to maintain and repair.  They then purchased a bunch of bargain basement diesels from China that all broke down within a week or two of arriving and going into service.   While the workshops were trying to repair them it was discovered that the Chinese had completely ignored the order spec and used lead paint and asbestos.  The locomotives themselves were little better than rubbish.

Completely stupid since we have hydroelectric electricity generation,  but have to import  every drop of diesel fuel into the country.  When the North Island Main Trunk line was electrified it was truly excellent with top of the line Italian built equipment and a pack of idiot politicians go and wreck it. 

[Barry O]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

They are more than likely still awaiting repairs.  When our braindead Tories were in government they ran them into the ground claiming that they were too expensive to maintain and repair.  They then purchased a bunch of bargain basement diesels from China that all broke down within a week or two of arriving and going into service.   While the workshops were trying to repair them it was discovered that the Chinese had completely ignored the order spec and used lead paint and asbestos.  The locomotives themselves were little better than rubbish.

Completely stupid since we have hydroelectric electricity generation,  but have to import  every drop of diesel fuel into the country.  When the North Island Main Trunk line was electrified it was truly excellent with top of the line Italian built equipment and a pack of idiot politicians go and wreck it. 

The current government stopped KiwiRail buying any more of the DLs from China. KiwiRailwere supposed to rework the big electrics. So far when we were there in February this year one has been cleaned up. Mitsubishi have offered a new traction package. I hope that all goes ahead.  Lots of electricity.. no oil.. seems stupid to not use electrics.

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

11 hours ago, Barry O said:

If you go up the lake from Queenstown you reach Glenorchy

 

 

which had a "railway" line from the little pier to a "goods shed" shown above

 

 

one of the wagons used to move goods around.. Fascinating place!

Baz

Nice pub for lunch too.

[Rhys]

8 hours ago, Barry O said:

The current government stopped KiwiRail buying any more of the DLs from China. KiwiRailwere supposed to rework the big electrics. So far when we were there in February this year one has been cleaned up. Mitsubishi have offered a new traction package. I hope that all goes ahead.  Lots of electricity.. no oil.. seems stupid to not use electrics.

 

Baz

 

The EF refubishment progarm is slowly ramping up. The Mitsubishi offer was not taken up as it would have involved gutting and replacing the innards which is not in the budget. A friend has been involved in the test driving of the new locos, and they are an old favorute of his (well behind anything with an EMD 567). The first of 60 Stadler locos for the South island are due next year to replace a fleet in the island with an average age of 50 years.

[Nick Gough]

22 hours ago, Gatesheadgeek said:

Did you travel through Haast Pass? It was a fantastic & totally unexpected journey through beech rainforest when I travelled that way nearly 20 years ago (eek, that’s a scary realisation!). 

Certainly did. Plus a walk to Thunder Creek Falls: