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Wanganui Branch
The Wanganui Branch is a 5.00 km branch line railway in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. It links Wanganui with the Marton - New Plymouth Line (MNPL) at Aramoho and has been open since 21 January 1878, although solely for freight traffic since 7 September 1959. Another branch line diverged from the Wanganui Branch near its terminus, the Castlecliff Branch. The first grant from the Provincial Growth Fund in February 2018 included $6 million for the Whanganui rail line. Construction The line out of Wanganui was constructed as part of the Wanganui and Foxton Railway. Contracts for construction were let in 1874, but various delays slowed work.David Leitch and Brian Scott, ''Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways'', revised edition (Wellington: Grantham House, 1998 [1995]), 32. By 1877, it was proceeding apace, and the five kilometres from the central Whanganui railway station, Wanganui station up the western bank of the Whanganui River to Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castlecliff Branch
The Castlecliff Branch is a branch line railway 5.88 km long in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. It is an extension of the Wanganui Branch from Taupo Quay in central Whanganui and follows the Whanganui River to Castlecliff on the South Taranaki Bight of the Tasman Sea. From its opening on 31 October 1885 until 1 February 1956 when the New Zealand Railways Department, NZR took over, it was owned by the Wanganui Heads Railway Company, later renamed the Castlecliff Railway Company. From 5 September 2006 services on the branch (named the Castlecliff Industrial Line) were suspended but the infrastructure remained in place. In 2011 KiwiRail resumed services on part of the line. Construction In 1878, the Foxton and Wanganui Railway was opened. The southernmost portion between Foxton, New Zealand, Foxton and Longburn became the now-closed Foxton Branch, the section from Longburn through Palmerston North to Marton, New Zealand, Marton part of the Nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Branch Line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located on a main line. Branch lines may also connect two or more main lines. Industrial spur An industrial spur is a type of secondary track used by railroads to allow customers at a location to load and unload railcars without interfering with other railroad operations. Industrial spurs can vary greatly in length and railcar capacity depending on the requirements of the customer the spur is serving. In heavily industrialized areas, it is not uncommon for one industrial spur to have multiple sidings to several different customers. Typically, spurs are serviced by local trains responsible for collecting small numbers of railcars and delivering them to a larger yard, where these railcars are sorted and dispatched in larger trains with other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Plymouth
New Plymouth () is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, in Devon, from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. The New Plymouth District, which includes New Plymouth City and several smaller towns, is the 10th largest district (out of 67) in New Zealand, and has a population of – about two-thirds of the total population of the Taranaki region and % of New Zealand's population. This includes New Plymouth City (), Waitara, New Zealand, Waitara (), Inglewood, New Zealand, Inglewood (), Ōakura (), Ōkato (561) and Urenui (429). The city itself is a service centre for the region's principal economic activities, including intensive pastoral activities (mainly dairy farming) as well as Petroleum, oil, natural gas and petrochemical exploration and production. It is also the region's financial centre as the home of the TSB (New Zealand), TSB Bank (formerly the T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diesel Locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels. The most common are diesel–electric locomotives and diesel–hydraulic. Early internal combustion engine, internal combustion locomotives and railcars used kerosene and gasoline as their fuel. Rudolf Diesel patented his first compression-ignition engine in 1898, and steady improvements to the design of diesel engines reduced their physical size and improved their power-to-weight ratios to a point where one could be mounted in a locomotive. Internal combustion engines only operate efficiently within a limited power band, and while low-power gasoline engines could be coupled to mechanical transmission (mechanics), transmissions, the more powerful diesel engines required the development of new forms of transmiss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SteamRail Wanganui
SteamRail Wanganui is a railway preservation society based in Wanganui, New Zealand. It owns heritage railway locomotives, rolling stock, and structures in the Wanganui area. It also operates occasional excursions in conjunction with other societies and provides a base for excursions passing through Wanganui to stop and visit while replenishing supplies. Its goal is to establish a railway precinct in Wanganui as a historical and tourist attraction. Society history and infrastructure The society was formed around 1990 with the express goal of restoring the old Wanganui turntable, which was then facing scrap. SteamRail Wanganui successfully saved the turntable and restored it over a period of three years with the assistance of Steam Incorporated. The first locomotive to use it was Steam Incorporated's KA 945 and the turntable now sees daily use by regular trains, as well as occasional use by visiting excursions. The society subsequently acquired other railway infrastructure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Railway And Locomotive Society
The New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Inc is a society of railway enthusiasts, based in Wellington. It was incorporated in 1958. The society archives are in the ''Thomas McGavin Building'' on Ava railway station's former goods yard in the Hutt Valley. At one time an old railway carriage held at the Ngaio railway station was used. Publications The society publishes a magazine, the ''New Zealand Railway Observer'' (), that was first published by the New Zealand Railway Correspondence Society on a Gestetner The Gestetner is a type of duplicating machine named after its inventor, David Gestetner (1854–1939). During the 20th century, the term ''Gestetner'' was used as a verb—as in ''Gestetnering''. The Gestetner company established its base in Lo ... in 1944, and a newsletter ''Turntable''. The society publishes books on railway subjects. There are about 25 books available, as listed on the website. Most are about New Zealand railways, but there is a book ''Cane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steam Incorporated
Steam Incorporated, often abbreviated to Steam Inc., is a railway heritage and preservation society based at the Paekākāriki railway station, Paekākāriki at the southern end of the Kāpiti Coast, approximately 50 minutes north of Wellington on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Unlike some societies who operate on preserved sections of closed branch lines, Steam Incorporated owns a depot ("The Engine Shed") beside one of the country's most important railway lines, the North Island Main Trunk railway, and restores heritage locomotives and rolling stock for use on excursions on the regular national rail network. History Paekākāriki's close association with the railway began in 1886 when the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company's line from Wellington to Longburn opened. Paekākāriki railway station was a large station despite the settlement's small size, as it was ideally located as a locomotive changeover point – powerful engines were required to tackle the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NZR RM Class
The RM class was the classification used by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) and its successors gave to most railcars and railbuses that have operated on New Zealand's national rail network. "RM" stands for Rail Motor which was the common name at the turn of the 20th century for what became known in New Zealand as railcars. As many types of railcars are operated, class names have been given to each railcar type to differentiate them from others. Experimental and early railcars In the early 20th century, NZR began investigating railcar technology to provide profitable and efficient passenger services on regional routes and rural branch lines where carriage trains were not economic and "mixed" trains (passenger carriage(s) attached to freight trains) were undesirably slow. A number of experimental railcars and railbuses were developed: * 1912: RM1 MacEwan-Pratt petrol railcar - the first railcar to operate in New Zealand * 1914: RM1 (number re-used) Westinghouse pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NZR RM Class (Standard)
The NZR RM class Standard railcars were a class of railcar operated by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) in the North Island of New Zealand. Officially classified as RM like all other railcar classes in New Zealand, they acquired the designation of "Standard" to differentiate them from other railcar classes. They were introduced in 1938 and withdrawn in 1972. Background Since the 1912 experiments with a MacEwan-Pratt petrol railcar, the New Zealand Railways Department had been seeking an effective and successful railcar design. Many routes simply did not have the demand to economically justify locomotive-hauled passenger express trains, so railcars were seen as a viable alternative. New Zealand's difficult terrain posed problems to railcar design, but in 1936, the Wairarapa railcars were introduced and proved to be a great success on the Wairarapa Line from Wellington over the Rimutaka Incline to the Wairarapa, and following from this, the Standard railcars were de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NZR RM Class (88 Seater)
The NZR RM class 88-Seaters were a class of railcar used in New Zealand. New Zealand Government Railways (NZR) classified them as RM (Rail Motor), the notation used for all railcars, numbering the 35 sets from RM100 to RM134. They were the most numerous railcars in NZR service. Their purchase and introduction saw the demise of steam-hauled provincial passenger trains and mixed trains, and was part of a deliberate effort to modernise NZR passenger services at a time of increasing competition from private motor vehicles. Being diesel powered and lighter the railcars were less expensive to operate and able to maintain quicker timetables, although they became plagued with mechanical and electrical problems, with a number of the classes eventually being turned into depowered locomotive-hauled carriages and reclassified as the AC class "Grassgrubs". Background In the early 1950s, NZR was in the process of replacing steam traction with diesel and modernising the railways to cope wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railcar
A railcar (not to be confused with the generic term railroad car or railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (or carriage, car, unit), with a driver's cab at one or both ends. In its simplest form, a "railcar" may also be little more than a motorized railway handcar, draisine or railbus. Some railway companies, such as the Great Western, termed such vehicles " railmotors" (or "rail motors"). Self-powered railcars were once common in North America; and termed Doodlebugs. Self-propelled passenger vehicles also capable of hauling a train are, in technical rail usage, more usually called " rail motor coaches" or "motor cars" (not to be confused with the motor cars, otherwise known as automobiles, that operate on roads). Alternative use In Australia, the term is sometimes also used as an alternative name for the small types of multiple un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taranaki Flyer
The ''Taranaki Flyer'' was the name given to a passenger train that was operated by the New Zealand Railways Department between Whanganui and New Plymouth from 1926 to 1965. Introduction The primary passenger service on the Marton–New Plymouth Line was the New Plymouth Express between Wellington and New Plymouth. It was augmented by three slower mixed trains that ran south from New Plymouth daily. In 1926, patronage was sufficiently high to justify replacing one of the mixed trains with a dedicated passenger service between New Plymouth and Whanganui. This train came to be known as the ''Taranaki Flyer''. Operation For most of its life, the ''Taranaki Flyer'' was a carriage train hauled by steam locomotives, and when it was introduced, it took approximately 4.5 hours to complete its journey. On 31 October 1955, the carriage trains were replaced by more economical railcars. The railcars were of the Standard and 88 seater types of the RM class. During the railcar p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
