International Railroad Discussion > From the Before Time: New Zealand 2019 Southern Rail Tour Part II

On a free afternoon in Dunedin, I did some more exploring down towards the Kiwi Rail facilities and was rewarded with a TR-class, DSG-class, and a northbound container train.

1. TR-class #157 with a nice builder’s plate below the headlight. It was sitting near the shops and was viewed from over a fence.

2. DSG-class #3101 was the main shunter in Dunedin. Almost every town with any sort of industry with rail service or a container terminal had either a DSG or DSC-class center cab shunter in a variety  of paint schemes.

3. Three major things came together for this photograph. First, a northbound (parked) container train that was nominally accessible. Second, there was a hole in the eight-foot tall fence in exactly the right spot. And third, the sun made a brief appearance while I was there. You bet I was happy! The train is led by two DXB-class locomotives, #5448 and #5120.

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On April 29, 2019, the tour departed Dunedin for Invercargill. The day started out rainy but improved through the day.  While we unloaded at the station platform in Invercargill, the station is not in use and somewhat derelict. There was rail action in Invercargill, mostly container trains, but either not accessible or operating at night. The rail line extends farther south to Bluff, but is classified as a branch and Kiwi Rail does not allow passenger trains on any branch so we used a bus to get to Bluff and the ferry to Stewart Island. There is also a branch to the northwest out of Invercargill to Morley which is/was a coal mining region.

4. We are in the siding at Waipahi to meet what turned out to be a mixed domestic and international container train. While waiting, the sun came out and everything was perfect, and then it spit rain. The driver was not nearby and I had a brief moment to decide whether I would try to figure out how to operate the windshield wipers. As that may have been a crime or at least viewed negatively, I opted to behave and actually love the resulting photograph. The locomotives are DXB-class #5114 and DC-class #4513. Note the different signal styles here which were more about switch position than occupancy. After the freight passed, our dwarf signal turned ‘blue,’ which I believe they called railway purple, which indicated that the switch was now aligned for the siding.

It is now May 1, 2019 and we are traveling north from Invercargill to Oamaru, which is best known for viewing the little blue penguins as they return each evening from feeding in the ocean.

5. We took the siding at Balclutha to meet a southbound freight behind DXB-class locos #5022 and #5080 with some possible maintenance-of-way flat cars and a string of refrigerated 20’ and 40’ Maersk containers, likely full of export meat.

6. A going away view of the southbound freight at Balclutha as viewed from the rear of the Silver Fern.

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7. In Balclutha was DSC-class #2325 in a somewhat faded Tranz Rail scheme.

8. This is a shot of the epic train station in Dunedin, somewhat out of order, but I wanted to include it. It is the base of operations for the Dunedin Railways and said to be one of the most photographed buildings in the world. It is sufficiently large that I could not get all of it in one shot.

9. On May 2, 2019, the final day of the tour, the Silver Fern loads at the Oamaru station. We would be back in Christchurch just after 12:30 PM.

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Did you find any of the Cable Car remains in Dunedin?

Hartington Wrote:
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> Did you find any of the Cable Car remains in
> Dunedin?

I did not note any remnants of cable car operations in Dunedin, but neither was I looking.
I will be covering Christchurch's 'tourist' trams in the final installment of my New Zealand series.