New Zealand Rail

Cookie_Monster

I intend to update this with some photos of New Plymouth and it's surrounds (and elsewhere should I be able too), rail wise. There's a yard up the road and a tram way running along the coast for a considerable distance through town. They work to a 1m gauge and run mostly GM Americanesque stock.

Does anyone know where I might be able to get a schedule for workings in and out of New Plymouth?

dermo88

The New Zealand system is 3'6" or 1,067mm, better known as "Cape gauge" since it is the same gauge used in South Africa. It is also the same gauge used in Japan and Taiwan. It is the former East India company colonies and surroundings that use Meter (1,000mm) gauge, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Cambobida, parts of India (being eliminated through project unigauge).

From what I see on the Internet, it is an astoundingly beautiful country, but rail passenger services are sparse in the regions.

101sean

Did the Overlander two years ago, stupendous journey. My first impression flying in to Auckland was that NZ looks like Ireland only lumpier!

Outside of the urban areas most of the lines are freight only (minerals or milk). The rail system was badly mismanaged by the government in the 90s (sound familiar :rolleyes:) and the private company dumped most of the passenger services. It's been effectively re-nationalised now (KiwiRail) and things are picking up. A big tranche of Chinese Dalian locos have been purchased and there's development in urban areas. Long distance passenger traffic will never come back though and some of the tourist traffic is in doubt.

There's a very good bi-monthly magazine on NZ railways and a couple of very good books. There's some good heritage lines for a small population although there's a question mark over a commercially run line. It's a fascinating country railway wise, not sure it can teach Ireland anything despite a similar demography.

dermo88

I have doubts with the purchase of the Dalian locomotive type. The Malaysian experience with their version was not good, although I suspect that it relates to the compressor on the turbocharger being incorrectly calibrated for the tropical conditions and humidity there.

New Zealand went through a similar economic crisis to Ireland in the 1980's, hence the free market privatisation of the system.

As for mismanagement, thats hard to say. From a passenger traffic side, its very hard to justify passenger trains in a sparsely populated country on a mainly single track narrow gauge system with a potential top speed if you are lucky of 120kph.

On the freight side.....again, problems...with competing modes.

101sean

You're better informed than me Dermo, railways is only a side interest for me (takes up most of my library though :rolleyes:)

Didn't they used to have a rule that freight over a certain distance had to go by rail but that was dropped some time back so it's mostly bulk freight these days?

Fascinating system but in the modern age they are hamstrung by the 3'6" gauge and topography with respect to long distance speeds.

roundymac

I visited in 1993, stayed in Waitoa near Hamilton. Got to see the daily Auckland-Wellington train, it was a two car railcar service, very similer in appearence to the 2600-2700-2800's. It had the American aluminium stlye finish. Rail travel was not popular that time, there had been a lot of fatalitys at level crossing's, people playing "chicken", 5 teenagers were killed the week I arrived, I think it was in Huntley. There was a lot of calls to close the railways at the time, glad to see it's still running. I often wondered what the top speeds are on 3ft gauge, the stability would'nt be great, would it, compared say to 4' 8" or 5' 3"?

101sean

When we did did the Overlander speed was never greater than 50mph, I don't know what the maximum line speeds were or what some of their expresses used to do.

Although it's 3'6" gauge, the loading gauge and stock are almost American in proportion. The locos and carriages were and still are a curious mix of British and American influences with Asian mixed in in recent years.

dermo88

I've seen meter gauge Diesel hauled stock reach 120 kph (75mph) , but its rare. 90 kph (55mph) is pretty normal. On electrics, it can do 145-150kph....(90-93pmh), which is respectable. But this tends to happen on rebuilt alignments. New Zealand is mountainous, and sparsely populated which goes against the economics of rail travel. Taiwan has similar terrain, but is incredibly densely populated, so it works out for them there on a narrow gauge system.

101sean

Informative as this is, it's not answering Cookie's question! No local sources of info? Just had a read some sites out of interest but nothing giving times.

dowlingm

101sean wrote: »

The locos and carriages were and still are a curious mix of British and American influences with Asian mixed in in recent years.

I seem to recall some British Mark 2s shipped there in the recent past...?

Cookie_Monster

Heard a few blow the whistles as they trundled along the foreshore this morning but didn't catch any.

I did however get pics of the track. It runs along the coast from the port, cuts in behind the city centre somewhere and goes north to a freight yard. The tracks have dozens of open crossings with on a simple "watch for trains" sign.




More will follow. There's also a preserved railway around here. I hope to get up to it at some point soon.

Cookie_Monster

some more

dowlingm

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

The tracks have dozens of open crossings with on a simple "watch for trains" sign.

Madness! Madness I tells you!

101sean

Probably reflects the H&S and no blame culture in NZ, trip, fall or get hit by a train and it's your own fault, should have looked where you were going!

Slightly hijacking Cookie's thread, here's some pics from when I was there a couple of years ago.

DC on the head of the Overlander at National Park. Only just noticed that despite the size of the trains they still use old fashioned ng chopper couplings.


Tank engine (don't recall the class) on Glenbrook Vintage Railway


1950s English Electric loco on shed at Glenbrook


Funicular railway in Wellington


Tank Engine at MOTAT in Auckland

Maverick88

dowlingm wrote: »

I seem to recall some British Mark 2s shipped there in the recent past...?

There were some pictures in in the railway press earlier in the year showing the makeover these MK2's had. Was pretty impressive. Some had been fitted with double (if I remember correctly) sliding doors, while others had been rebuilt with generator sets in one end.

Was hard to tell these had orginally been MK2 Air Cons

Cookie_Monster

I had to stop at a crossing for these two, they're actually quite small, much more so than I was expecting!



The crossing: a fairly standard example of the ones around here, all open with just lighting and bells to warm of approaching train.





The Yard: It's not visable anywhere from the road, I stopped at the rubbish transfer station beside it to get this limited view
This has "remote control" written on the side of it.

Loading crane

CaptainSkidmark

what is the story with the circular split thing under the tunnel? lol

101sean

It's the passing loop where the up and down cars pass, it's a long zoom so looks compressed.

The outer wheels on the cars are double flanged so movable points aren't needed.

DWCommuter

dowlingm wrote: »

I seem to recall some British Mark 2s shipped there in the recent past...?

Here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX2lsTYMEfA

Has anyone in IE asked the Kiwis if they are interested in our MK3 stock.:D

dowlingm

DWCommuter wrote: »

Has anyone in IE asked the Kiwis if they are interested in our MK3 stock.:D

Not that mad - after all the Mk2s had to be regauged to 1067mm so the odd gauge is not a showstopper.

DWCommuter

dowlingm wrote: »

Not that mad - after all the Mk2s had to be regauged to 1067mm so the odd gauge is not a showstopper.

You're right, its not that mad. The work in New Zealand really highlights what can be done with old stock. Those MK2s look amazing.