International Railroad Discussion > New Zealand

Some more Kiwi offerings:

Electric EMU stock in the Wellington station

Wellington is also upgrading its commuter system and some of the older EMUs are on their way to Zimbabwe to be used as demotorized trailers

The Capital Connection is a week-day commuter train to Palmerston North, about 85 miles northwest on the mainline to Auckland. This is the only commuter train operated by KiwiScenic and uses former intercity equipment. Palmerston is a fast growing commercial center of about 100,000 but it is well beyond the Wellington suburban rail system so all it has in terms of train service is the "CapCon" and the tri-weekly Explorer service. Still, it's doing a bit better than Hamilton, which is bigger, and 85 miles from Auckland.

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Interior of one the Capital Connection cars

One of the new intercity cars, considerably brighter and better suited to viewing the beautiful New Zealand landscape

The Interislander ferry Kaitaki at Picton. If you don't fly this how you get from Wellington to the South Island. There are three ships dedicated to this service, all but the Kaitaki handle rail cars. The trip takes three hours and connects in Picton with the Coastal Pacific for a 5hr. 20min. ride to Christchurch.

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The Subway/rail station at Picton

The entire New Zealand intercity rail system outlined in one sign

In the yard next to the station

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Along the way to Christchurch:

The first station south of Picton is Blenheim. This is in the Marlborough region noted for its wine growing industry. They say they have the world's best Sauvignon Blanc and I would never argue their claim.

Kaikoura station. You can see eight different species of whales near here.

It took a long while to finish the Picton-Christchurch link. The first segment was begun in the 1880's. Two world wars, a depression and a lot of politics slowed things down.

More later, have to go back to the real world for a while.

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The Capital Connection coaches are ex British Rail where they may well have been used on InterCity services but I don't think they ever got used in inter city services in NZ.

Photo five,
This would be a good design for Amtrak.

Uncle Joe,Seffner,Fl.

We took the Northern Explorer, Coastal Pacific and TranzAlpine trains last month.

The cars are spectacular. Of course the open-air observation car is the best part of the train - and the passengers are treated like adults, so there is no supervision. One of the amazing things about these trains is that they are staffed by only two persons - the Onboard Manager (who is also the conductor, ticket agent, baggage checker, etc.) and the Cafe car attendant (who also cleans the train and conducts switching moves).

Here are some interior and exterior photos of the train. The first two are of the observation car and the third is the exterior of one of the coaches.

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And the first picture is of the interior of the coach, while the second is a picture of the Cafe car exterior.

These cars were designed by KiwiRail and built in Dunedin, New Zealand. They are very well thought out and comfortable.

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Built in Dunedin; no more the B*****ds closed the Hillside Workshops where they were built.

Malcolm
New Zealand

It was so cool to have a full open car on main line passenger trains. Here you get yelled at if you open a Dutch Door.

Nice work, Latebeans! Looking forward to more!

Cheers,
Jack

Latebeans Wrote:
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> Interior of one the Capital Connection cars

Are they the ex-BR Mk 2 air conditioned stock which was exported to New Zealand over the years, certainly looks like it?

Windows! They believe in big, clean windows

With regards to those photos of the cars inside a station, where is this station? It is very modern looking.

Rick

Auckland

VintageMac Wrote:
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> We took the Northern Explorer, Coastal Pacific and
> TranzAlpine trains last month.
>
> The cars are spectacular. Of course the open-air
> observation car is the best part of the train -
> and the passengers are treated like adults, so
> there is no supervision. One of the amazing
> things about these trains is that they are staffed
> by only two persons - the Onboard Manager (who is
> also the conductor, ticket agent, baggage checker,
> etc.) and the Cafe car attendant (who also cleans
> the train and conducts switching moves).
>
> Here are some interior and exterior photos of the
> train. The first two are of the observation car
> and the third is the exterior of one of the
> coaches.

Look at those huge windows, very cool. And "passengers are treated like adults, so there is no supervision". More advantages to traveling & railfanning outside the USA.