Pages tagged with: trains

The North Island main trunk railway celebrates its centenary later this year. With rail in the news thanks to the recent state takeover, take a trip back in time to explore the making of the main trunk, the heyday of the steam passenger train and the place of the iconic refreshment room in New Zealand life.

The royal aeroplane lands in Westport. Scenes of crowds welcoming the Royal couple. Then we cut to scenes of the Royal train leaving for Christchurch via Arthur's Pass.

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.

The camera pans along a dark blue locomotive engine. But this isn't a full-size engine, it is part of the Exhibition's miniature railway.

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

An inspection is made of the fallen bridge span and locomotive, 25 December 1953.

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'.

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

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

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

In the mid-1930s the Ab-class Pacifics were superseded on the main trunk by the giant 4-8-4 K-class locomotives – the pinnacle of steam power on New Zealand's railways

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

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

'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

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

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

This is one of AB 608’s memorial nameplates.

Passchendaele was a star of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, and it hauled the Prince of Wales's royal train in 1920 and the Duke and Duchess of York’s in 1927.

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.

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

Last century, Governors-General used luxuriously appointed, special rail carriages.