Permanent Way

Locomotives

Steam as a form of motive power is far from dead on the New Zealand Railways, although no new steam locomotives have been built for the service since 1956. Today the powerful diesel-electric locomotive is gradually ousting steam. In some respects this is to be regretted, for the New Zealand Railways have a long and proud tradition of steam locomotive design and construction. In 1889 the railway workshops built their first locomotive, a 37-ton tank engine of class “W”, and it was a New Zealand designer who gave the world the first “Pacific” (4–6–2) and “Mountain” (4–8–2) type locomotives, in 1901 and 1908 respectively. The latest types of steam locomotive in New Zealand, the 4–8–2 “Ja”, weighing 110 tons, and the 4–8–4 “Ka”, weighing 145 tons, are magnificent and thoroughly modern machines which have done sterling work both in passenger and in freight service. Designed in New Zealand for local conditions, they nevertheless reveal traces of their British and American ancestry. A “Ka” is capable of hauling a 13-car, 400-ton express train at well over a mile a minute on level track, or a 1,000-ton freight train at 30 m.p.h. The speedy and graceful “Ja” has demonstrated its remarkable performance in express service on the level plains of Canterbury, and on occasions has attained speeds in excess of 70 miles an hour.

At the end of March 1965 New Zealand Railways had in operation 57 oil-fired and 260 coal-fired steam locomotives; 159 diesel-electric main line and 46 diesel-electric shunting locomotives; 148 diesel-mechanical shunting locomotives; and 28 electric locomotives. Diesels are responsible for working almost all freight traffic over the North Island Main Trunk line. Moreover, the use of diesel shunting locomotives in marshalling yards and at country stations has resulted in the withdrawal of large numbers of obsolete steam locomotives. In addition, freight services have been greatly improved in recent years. Goods trains are now carrying heavier payloads and are moving faster, with distinct savings in fuel and wages. On the Wellington-Auckland route alone, the use of diesel locomotives has enabled ordinary goods train schedules to be reduced from 38 hours to less than 24 hours. Four principal types of diesel-electric main-line locomotives are in use: the General Motors G-12 type of 1,425 b.h.p., otherwise known as class “Da”; the English Electric 1,500 b.h.p. 2–Co–Co–2 of class “Df”; the English Electric 750 b.h.p. A1A–A1A of class “Dg”; and the English Electric 660 b.h.p. Bo–Bo of class “De”. Two new types of diesel-electric locomotive recently introduced for service on secondary main lines are the General Motors G-8 A1A–A1A type of 950 h.p., classified “Db”, and the English Electric Co–Co type of 1,012 h.p., which are known as class “Di”.

Diesel power has also played an important part in the improvement of railway passenger services in New Zealand. Fifty diesel railcars are in use, providing fast and frequent services over practically all principal inter-city routes. The first diesel railcars in New Zealand were placed in service as early as 1936–37, and in 1940 a new type then on test attained 78 m.p.h., the highest speed ever officially recorded on New Zealand Railways.

Electrification has not made its mark in New Zealand to the extent that might have been expected in a country with considerable hydro-electric power-generating resources. Only five sections of line, with a total route length of 68 miles, have been electrified, and at first the principal reason was the undesirability of using steam locomotives through long tunnels. Some years ago comprehensive plans were drawn up for the electrification of the North Island Main Trunk line between Paekakariki and Auckland, but diesel traction, introduced as a stop-gap measure to avoid heavy capital expenditure, proved that it could cope with all the traffic offering. As a result the electrification proposals were shelved.

The electrified sections at present in use work at a line pressure of 1,500V d.c., current being collected by pantograph from an overhead contact wire. The earliest installation was completed in 1923 between Otira and Arthur's Pass, through the Otira Tunnel. In 1929, after more than 60 years of steam operation, the Christchurch-Lyttelton line was electrified to improve passenger travel through the Lyttelton Tunnel. Electrification of the Wellington suburban railway network began a few years before the 1939–45 war. The first section, completed in 1938, was the steeply graded branch line from Wellington to Johnsonville, this being followed two years later by the 25-mile Wellington-Paekakariki section of the Main Trunk line. In 1955, after several years of work involving the construction of new tracks, stations, and bridges, the Wellington – Upper Hutt section (20 route miles) was completed at a cost of nearly £5 million. This brought the aggregate length of electrified routes radiating from Wellington to more than 50 miles.

Average Tractive Effort Per Locomotive

Rolling Stock

To carry their heavy freight traffic, the railways of New Zealand maintain some 33,000 wagons with an aggregate capacity of about 400,000 tons. About half of these vehicles have been placed in service since 1945, and are therefore of modern design. The types of vehicles provided for freight transport give some indication of the classes of traffic carried by New Zealand Railways. Typical vehicles are open “highsiders” of 15 tons capacity, for coal, manure, and other bulk commodities; double-decked sheep wagons to carry 80 sheep; steel box wagons with unusually wide doors, designed to carry 14 tons of palletised freight; bogie-type box wagons for the conveyance of merchandise at express-train speeds; louvred box wagons for fish and fruit; and high-capacity, bogie-type insulated wagons for the transport of frozen meat from works to ports. Other specialised types include massive bogie wagons especially designed for the transport of pulp logs from the Kaingaroa Forest to the Kawerau pulp and paper mills; four-wheeled flat wagons for the conveyance of palletised timber; wagons with removable hoppers to facilitate the loading of colliers at West Coast ports; tank wagons for liquid hot bitumen and tallow; and pressurised tankers for bulk cement. Another development is the use of lightweight portable containers to facilitate door-to-door deliveries. These containers can be carried on railway wagons or motor trucks, and are designed to fit into the cargo hold of a Bristol Freighter aircraft, as used on the Railways Department's Rail-Air freight service over Cook Strait.

Reconstruction

Although the New Zealand railway system is predominantly single track, with crossing loops at stations, double-line working has been made possible as a result of duplication in several areas where traffic density is exceptionally high. More than 157 route miles of double track were in use at the end of 1964 on the approaches to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. The section between Auckland and Frankton, which carries the highest density of traffic in New Zealand, is duplicated for almost its full length of 84 miles. The task of reconstructing the railways to meet modern needs is a never-ending one. The financial stringencies of the seventies and eighties, and later, resulted in economies of construction that today seriously hamper railway operations, and deviations are necessary to shorten distances, to reduce severe curvature, or to eliminate steep gradients. Old bridges – some dating from the earliest days of railways in this country – enforce restrictions on modern locomotives which are quite unacceptable, and in most instances such bridges are no longer economical to maintain in good condition. As rapidly as finances and engineering considerations permit, they are being replaced by new structures designed to have a very long life combined with low maintenance costs. New Zealand railway engineers are making increasing use of prestressed concrete as a construction material, and it would appear that the concrete railway bridge will in the future become as commonplace as was once the timber bridge in the nineteenth century.

Each of the four main centres – Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin – now possesses a large and well-planned passenger terminal. The newest, at Christchurch, was completed in 1960. At many of the provincial centres, and at some country towns, the traditional rambling wooden station building has been replaced by a neat and functional structure of contemporary design. It would be premature to state that the replacement of old and inadequate station buildings is planned on a large scale, but the trend is a continuing one, as is shown by the recent construction of attractive stations at Rotorua, Te Awamutu, New Plymouth, Stratford, Napier, Palmerston North, Feilding, Lyttelton, Springfield and Port Chalmers. Many new goods sheds are also being built, particularly in the Auckland district, where an expanding economy is taxing existing facilities. To reduce manual work, greater use is being made of mechanical appliances such as mobile cranes and forklifts. At Frankton a new trans-shipment shed with freight trolleys propelled by an underfloor endless chain was opened in 1960, and at Westfield, on the outskirts of the Auckland metropolitan area, an extensive new marshalling yard costing more than £700,000 was brought into use in 1962. Elsewhere, crossing loops and station yards are being lengthened or otherwise increased in capacity to accommodate the bigger freight trains that diesel locomotives have made possible.

Train Services

Each working day more than 1,000 trains run over the tracks of the New Zealand railway system. These services range from long-distance express trains and railcars to suburban trains and local freight “shunts”. In the course of a full year they cover more than 15 million miles.

The fastest rail passenger services maintain time-table average speeds of 30–35 m.p.h. over the full length of their journeys, including all stops. Between stops, schedules call for average speeds up to 45 m.p.h. for steam-hauled passenger trains, and up to 54 m.p.h. for diesel railcars. On sections where conditions are favourable, maximum running speeds are 50–55 m.p.h. for passenger trains and 55–60 m.p.h. for railcars.

The most noteworthy passenger trains are the diesel-hauled “Night Limited” expresses which cover the 423 miles between Wellington and Auckland in 13 ½ hours, and the steam-hauled “South Island Limited” expresses between Christchurch and Invercargill, which are timed to run the 367 miles in 11¾ hours. Regular overnight express trains include sleeping cars, arranged on the British “corridor” pattern with transverse cabins each having two berths. Air conditioning is not installed on New Zealand trains, although the first-class reclining seat coaches employed on the principal Main Trunk express services have a pressure ventilation system. Dining or restaurant cars have not been provided since 1917, when they were withdrawn as a wartime economy measure. Instead, refreshment rooms are maintained by the railway administration at principal stations where trains are required, in any event, to stop for several minutes.

Diesel railcars have replaced conventional express trains – except at holiday times – on all except the two Main Trunk routes, and even then, in the South Island, they supplement the daily expresses. In some instances, notably on the Christchurch-Greymouth, Wellington – New Plymouth, and Wellington-Napier routes, railcars provide two return services daily. The latest are of the articulated type seating 88 passengers. Powered by two 210 b.h.p. underfloor diesel engines, they are capable of 65 m.p.h. and normally maintain schedules such as: Christchurch-Dunedin (229 miles) in 6 h 5 min; Wellington-Napier (197 miles) 5 h 45 min; and Auckland-Rotorua (172 miles), 5 h 10 min.

Although suburban passenger services are operated in the Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin metropolitan areas, by far the most intensive commuter services are those provided in the Wellington area, where a conveniently situated city terminal and fast multiple-unit trains on three electrified routes serving densely populated residential areas carry 16 million passengers annually. Unlike the suburban rail services at the other cities, those at Wellington do not have to compete with bus services, although considerable traffic is drawn away from rail by private and business automobiles, many of which travel into the city in the morning and home again in the evening carrying “expenses-shared” passengers. Wellington Railway-Station is the busiest passenger terminal in the country. Each day nearly 400 passenger services enter or leave the nine platforms, and on the busiest days some 50,000 passengers pass through the concourse. During the morning and evening peak periods the frequency of arrivals and departures reaches one train per minute.

The average rate of terminal-to-terminal movement of freight trains is rising steadily, thanks to the increasing use of diesel traction, and the statistical figure of 14 m.p.h. compares favourably with the corresponding averages of 10 m.p.h. for Great Britain and 20 m.p.h. for the U.S. The fastest freight trains are those which run overnight in each direction between Wellington and Auckland, and between Christchurch and Dunedin. Consisting solely of bogie vehicles and restricted in maximum loading, these trains run at speeds up to 50 m.p.h. and average some 27 m.p.h. throughout. Ordinary goods trains, which sometimes build up to a trailing load of 2,000 tons on favourable sections and run at maximum speeds of 30–35 m.p.h., maintain scheduled average speeds of 15–20 m.p.h. This includes all stops for shunting and all time spent waiting to cross other trains on the single-track main lines. A typical example of this class of train is the overnight freight service which covers the 197 miles between Wellington and Napier in 10 ½ hours.

Gross Ton-Miles

Subsidiary Transport Operations

The non-railway activities of New Zealand Railways embrace transport by sea, by road, and by air. As a shipowner, the Railways Department has been in business since 1902 when it acquired the fleet operated by the Lake Wakatipu Shipping Co. In 1962 it entered the coastal trade with a new “roll-on”, “roll-off” vehicular ferry, the Aramoana, plying between Wellington and Picton. This 4,160-ton diesel-electric vessel serves as a floating bridge between the North and South Islands and has relieved the Department of much of the inconvenience of operating what virtually amounted to two separate railway systems, one for each island. Carrying both railway wagons and motor vehicles, the Aramoana is manned and operated for the Department by the Union Steam Ship Co. of New Zealand Ltd. So successful has this venture proved that a second vessel, named Aranui, was placed in service early in 1966.

An earlier link between these two sections of railway was the Rail-Air freight service, which the Department inaugurated in 1947 as a means of accelerating the inter-Island transfer of rail freight. In 1951 the Department engaged an aerial contractor to provide and fly the aircraft; at the same time a mechanical system of loading and unloading was devised. This venture has been an outstanding commercial success and at the end of 1961 six Bristol Freighter aircraft were carrying inter-Island rail freight over Cook Strait at the rate of more than 50,000 tons annually. One of the few air-freight services to be operated by a railway administration in any part of the world, Rail-Air is today regarded as a very efficient undertaking. Although the actual aircraft operation is carried out under contract by a private company, Straits Air Freight Express Ltd., the Department handles all freight and arranges for the loading of the aircraft.

The Railways Department is the largest operator of road vehicles in the country, and the Road Services Branch has been in existence since 1926, when several competitive bus services were purchased. The genesis of railway-owned road services, however, was 1907, when the Department began a bus service between Culverden Railway Station and Hanmer Springs, in Canterbury. Today the Road Services Branch runs over more than 5,000 miles of routes in both islands, providing long-distance motor coach, suburban omnibus, rural passenger, and freight services. The fleet consists of more than a thousand vehicles.

Over the years rail transport has contributed greatly to New Zealand's transition from colonial outpost to progressive nation, and there is no reason to doubt that in the future New Zealand Railways will continue to play a prominent part in the economic development of the country.

by Albert Noel Palmer, Assistant Publicity Manager, New Zealand Government Railways, Wellington.