Pages tagged with: railways

Before most people had cars or telephones, let alone television and the Internet, the railway provided many communities with their main connection to the outside world.

This timeline lists New Zealand’s worst natural disasters, transport accidents, fires, mining accidents and other tragedies that have caused major loss of life.

From the late 19th century the expanding rail network opened up exciting leisure and tourism opportunities for ordinary New Zealand families. New Zealand Railways promoted rail holidays through bright, attractive posters and its own popular monthly magazine.

All aboard! The North Island main trunk railway is 100 years old in 2008. Take a trip back in time to explore the epic construction of the line, the heyday of the steam passenger train and the place of the iconic railway refreshment room in New Zealand life.

Members of Parliament and guests are assembled in front of the 'Parliament Special' in 1908. Members of Parliament travelling by rail received free gold medallion railway passes.

Hear an excerpt from a radio documentary about the North Island main trunk line.

Hear an excerpt from a radio documentary about the North Island main trunk line.

The Royal train arrives in Palmerston North to great cheers. We then see the train passing Mt Taranaki (Egmont). In Stratford, the Royals walk among the crowd.

New Zealand's worst railway disaster occurred on Christmas Eve 1953. The Wellington–Auckland night express plunged into the flooded Whangaehu River, just west of Tangiwai, near Waiouru. Of the 285 people on board, 151 were killed. The tragedy left a nation in mourning and stunned the world.

On 15 April 1885 Premier Robert Stout, Wahanui Huatare and Rewi Maniapoto ceremonially turned the ‘first sod' of the central section at Puniu, near Te Awamutu.

On a fine, calm day ‘Cruising on The Interislander’ can be like a luxury Mediterranean cruise, but Cook Strait can be one of the world's roughest stretches of water. Often, the ferry experience is less The Love Boat and more the 'chuck bucket'.

A history of the North Island railway main trunk line since the first through train left Wellington on 7 August 1908

In the heyday of rail travel the station was a vibrant hub of community life.

The unfortunate sequence of events that led to the Tangiwai disaster

From the early days of rail, excursion and special trains gave people new opportunities to visit beaches, lakes, parks, racecourses and shows.

For most second-class travellers, travelling the main trunk meant a long, sleepless journey on hard-backed seats, struggling to find 'elusive comfort with the NZR pillow'.

Wreckage of first-class Car Z, 27 December 1953

The most famous engineering feature of the main trunk is the Raurimu Spiral, designed by engineer Robert Holmes. The spiral, which includes two tunnels, three horseshoe curves and a complete circle, was celebrated in this 1929 publicity leaflet.

Refreshments are an essential and often talked about part of any train journey.

This map shows the wide dispersal of wreckage after the engine and first six carriages of the Wellington–Auckland express plunged into the Whangaehu River near Tangiwai on Christmas Eve 1953.

Hear Prime Minister Sidney Holland's Christmas Day announcement about the Tangiwai disaster. Holland spoke by phone from Waiouru Military Camp to Wellington, where the recording was made on disc for later broadcast.

As well as day excursions, from the mid-1890s New Zealand Railways offered special deals for travellers taking longer rail journeys over the Christmas and Easter holiday periods.

Hear Lionel Sceats talk about the Tangiwai disaster.

It was clear by the 1870s that the Kingitanga posed no threat beyond its borders and was in no fit shape to fight a war. Attempts were made to ease relations between the king and the colonial government.

The wreckage of the Wellington–Auckland express and the remains of the railway bridge at Tangiwai, 25 December 1953

How locals and police responded to New Zealand's worst railway disaster

Before 1962 rail struggled to compete with ships for inter-island business, but the road/rail ferries changed that.

On 15 April 1885 the first sod of the central section of the main trunk was turned near the Puniu River, south of Te Awamutu, by Premier Robert Stout.

In 1920 New Zealand Railways established it own Railways Studios – the country’s first outdoor advertising studio. The studios produced posters, pamphlets, maps and pictorial postage stamps promoting the services of New Zealand Railways.

Hear an interview with a local eyewitness of the Tangiwai disaster.

A Public Works Department camp at Hapuawhenua, near Ohakune

Many of us associate the beginning of state housing with the hipped-roof cottages built by the first Labour government of the 1930s and 40s. But the origin of state housing has much earlier roots.

In the 1960s, the ferries' food and services fell short of the glossy ads, but now they are more upmarket.

On 6 November 1908 Prime Minister Joseph Ward ceremonially opened the North Island main trunk line by driving in a final polished silver spike at Manganuioteao, between National Park and Ohakune.

Rescue party at a wrecked carriage of the Wellington–Auckland express at Tangiwai

Crossing Cook Strait is often idyllic, but it can be one of the world’s roughest stretches of water as it's part of the westerly wind belt known as the Roaring Forties.

Like other public facilities, railway stations often attracted loafers and drunks, bored teenagers or lonely souls seeking human contact.

During the inter-war years no other monthly magazine matched New Zealand Railways for its commitment to promoting a popular literary culture in New Zealand.

Passengers board the luxurious all-sleeper Silver Star at Wellington Station in 1974. Unfortunately, the service did not survive the decade.

Cook Strait ferries were vital to the flow of freight and passengers between the North and South islands, and  interruptions because of bad weather, mechanical problems or strikes and lockouts inevitably hit the headlines.

The main trunk provided a boost to New Zealand's fledgling tourist industry, including the Chateau Tongariro, which opened in 1929. As this poster proclaims, the Chateau was 'Best reached by rail'.

As an alternative to the refreshment room crush, in 1928 New Zealand Railways introduced these luncheon hampers on main trunk expresses.

Taihape was one of the many towns in the central North Island that owed their existence to the main trunk line. It was also home to one of New Zealand's best-known railway refreshment rooms, where bleary-eyed travellers poured off overnight trains for a quick 'cuppa and a pie'.

The old fable about the tortoise and the hare was replayed on Cook Strait as fast ferries offered travellers a quick dash across the ditch.

After the peak years of the 1920s and late 1930s, tourist travel all but ceased during the Second World War.

For many years the scramble for refreshments at railway stations was one of the central rituals of New Zealand life. In 1946 the Refreshment Branch served more than nine million travellers.

Paekakariki was another well-known refreshment stop on the main trunk line.

Today fewer than 100 railway stations survive, and only about 40 wooden stations remain on their original sites.

Commuters drink tea and coffee in a railway buffet car.

Re-enactment of the Parliamentary special trip of 1908

Poster promoting the South Island train service

An invitation to the opening ceremony of the Johnsonville electric multiple-unit service in July 1938

Farewells at stations took on an extra poignancy during wartime.

These men, photographed at the Kingston railway station in 1900, make a good gallery of moustache styles.

'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

This striking image of a train riding high over the Makohine Viaduct on the North Island main trunk was designed by leading Railways Studio artist Stanley Davis.

The New Zealand Centennial Exhibition in Wellington attracted more than 2.6 million visitors, including tens of thousands of rail travellers from all over the country, during its six-month run from 1939 to 1940.

The luxury all-sleeper Silver Star service, introduced in 1971, revolutionised overnight travel on the North Island main trunk line.

New Year's picnickers perch precariously atop logging wagons near the King Country settlement of Manunui.

Stylised ‘bathing belles’ and other images of women figured prominently in inter-war railway advertising.

This 1948 advertisement was one of hundreds of eye-catching posters, pamphlets and maps produced by the Railways Studios and publicity branch.

This 1923 New Zealand Railways poster offers a four-week Tourist Ticket for each island for £10 (around $810 in today’s money) or a seven-week nationwide pass for £16 5s (around $1,300 nowadays).

The future of National Park station was affected by the threatened closure of the Overlander service in 2006.

Since the 1990s the TranzAlpine service, which traverses the spectacular Southern Alps between Christchurch and Greymouth, has become a popular tourist venture.

Much of the Railways Department’s advertising focussed on promoting family holidays.

Several serialised features from the New Zealand Railways Magazine were republished as booklets.

In the late 1930s New Zealand Railways strongly promoted its own services in the pages of the New Zealand Railways Magazine.

By 1935 the New Zealand Railways Magazine had grown to 64 pages, promising more ‘travel, sport, humour, thrills’ for its expanding readership.

Twisted train tracks lead to the banks of the Whangaehu River, Tangiwai, the scene of the railway disaster of 24 December 1953.

New Zealand isn’t famous for its railway songs and has produced little to compare with the American folk classics, but few home-grown folk songs are as iconic as Peter Cape’s ‘Taumarunui (on the main trunk line)’.

The Daylight 'Limited' Express never achieved the iconic status of its overnight counterpart, the Night Limited, but it was a popular feature of the New Zealand Railway's summer timetable in the 1950s.

Car Z was the only first-class carriage to tumble into the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai.

Amateur cameraman Mr Edwin Nitschke shot this film on an 8-mm camera on Boxing Day 1953, two days after the Tangiwai disaster. Clip five of five

Amateur cameraman Mr Edwin Nitschke shot this film on an 8-mm camera on Boxing Day 1953, two days after the Tangiwai disaster. Clip four of five

Amateur cameraman Mr Edwin Nitschke shot this film on an 8-mm camera on Boxing Day 1953, two days after the Tangiwai disaster. Clip three of five

Amateur cameraman Mr Edwin Nitschke shot this film on an 8-mm camera on Boxing Day 1953, two days after the Tangiwai disaster. Clip two of five

Amateur cameraman Mr Edwin Nitschke shot this film on an 8-mm camera on Boxing Day 1953, two days after the Tangiwai disaster. Clip one of five

The decade after 1951 was generally a period of quiet prosperity and stability in New Zealand. However, in 1955 a group of Nelson women attracted international attention when they staged a remarkable sit-in protest against the government's decision to close the local railway line.

Travellers queue to buy tickets at the Rotorua railway station booking office in the early 1930s. The inter-war years were the heyday of rail tourism in New Zealand. The office is decorated with posters and maps advertising rail trips, and it also includes a Government Tourist Bureau kiosk.

Hear an excerpt from a radio documentary about the North Island main trunk line.

This photo was taken to mark the digging of the first sod for the main trunk railway in Ngati Maniapoto territory, 15 April 1885. The group stands at the confiscation line at the southern bank of the Puniu River.

In the mid-1930s the Ab-class Pacifics were superseded on the main trunk by the giant 4-8-4 K-class locomotives – the pinnacle of steam power on New Zealand's railways

Map showing the expansion of the North Island rail network from 1880 to 1909.

Railway houses in Tarikaka Street, Ngaio, Wellington, in the 1980s