The Wellington and Manawatu Railway (WMR) Company’s locomotive No. 10 established a world speed record for the narrow 3 foot 6 inch (1067 mm) gauge, averaging 68 km per hour on a two-hour run and hitting a peak speed of 103 kph.
New Zealand's worst railway disaster occurred on Christmas Eve 1953, when the Wellington–Auckland night express plunged into the swollen Whangaehu River near Tangiwai. Of the 285 people on board, 151 were killed. The tragedy stunned the world and left a nation in mourning.
The Ngakawau-Seddonville branch line was built solely for the transport
of coal from mines near Seddonville to Westport harbour, where it was
then transported around New Zealand by sea.
Gore railwaymen celebrated Armistice Day in November 1918 by decorating
locomotive F 78 and wagon with wilting greenery, imitation sausages and
a blunt chalked message to the Kaiser.
A few months after the last steam locomotives had been withdrawn from this country's scheduled rail operations, New Zealand Railways launched a new tourist-oriented steam passenger venture in the South Island.
The Christchurch-Dunedin overnight express, headed by a JA-class locomotive, ran the last scheduled steam-hauled service on New Zealand Railways, bringing to an end 108 years of regular steam rail operations in this country.
'The Silver Spike', a documentary about the history of the North Island main trunk line shown on the New Zealand Film Unit's Pictorial parade, 7 November 1958
