New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society

24/06/2026

Step Back in Time - Article 39 from an early issue of New Zealand Railway Observer is now on our website.
This article is Locomotives and Their Performance No 30 - The Baldwin Locomotives of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway by A.N. Palmer (Volume 30, Number 2, Winter 1973)
Earlier Step Back in Time Articles are available on the website under the Publications Tab (historical NZRO articles).

Welcome to the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Now on Facebook Go to Facebook The Society was formed in 1944 by enthusiasts interested in the then New Zealand Railways. Membership is open to all with an interest in the New Zealand Railway system both old and new. Member groups meet in mos...

17/06/2026

Step Back in Time - Article 38 from an early issue of New Zealand Railway Observer is now on our website.
This article is Fifty Years of the Otira Tunnel - Its Conception and Construction as Reported in 1923 with an introduction by T.A. McGavin. Volume 30, Number 2, Winter 1973)
Earlier Step Back in Time Articles are available on the website under the Publications Tab (historical NZRO articles).

Welcome to the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Now on Facebook Go to Facebook The Society was formed in 1944 by enthusiasts interested in the then New Zealand Railways. Membership is open to all with an interest in the New Zealand Railway system both old and new. Member groups meet in mos...

16/06/2026

Auckland suburban sunset (not quite)

A typical Auckland suburban service of the 1970’s, an unidentified Da class heading towards Auckland at Papatoetoe, in the late afternoon sun, with a four carriage train featuring a mixture of 50 and 56ft former mainline express carriages behind the loco. A selection of goods wagons are in the sidings awaiting pick-up by a suburban shunting service. Car enthusiasts may salivate over the vehicles parked in Shirley Road in the background.

In the 1970s the Auckland suburban network of NZR was not particularly loved by the powers that be. Irregular and infrequent diesel-hauled passenger trains featuring tired hand-me-down rolling stock that started life on Main Trunk expresses calling at somewhat unkempt stations were the norm. Thankfully the network and its services clung-on through the 1980s until rejuvenation, when former Perth diesel multiple-units were introduced in the early 1990s.

The 1970s image is a far cry from today’s clean purpose-built electric multiple-units with trains running every 10 minutes during peak-hours (20 minutes off-peak) into bright and clean suburban station shelters. It’s amazing what a bit of love, in the form of investment, planning and promotion, can do!

The station building, visible behind the train, survives today. The former Railway Station building was shifted to a site near the over-bridge that carries St George St over the railway line to the south of the station site in 1999. It was restored by members of the Papatoetoe Railway Station Preservation Trust and opened for community use in October 2004

Photograph by John Edwards, held in the NZRLS collection

10/06/2026

Step Back in Time - Article 37 from an early issue of New Zealand Railway Observer is now on our website.
This article is Locomotives and their Performances No. 29 - New Trains Show Their Paces - Smart Work on the Manawatu Line by T.A. McGavin (Volume 30, Number 1, Autumn 1973)
Earlier Step Back in Time Articles are available on the website under the Publications Tab (historical NZRO articles).

Welcome to the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Now on Facebook Go to Facebook The Society was formed in 1944 by enthusiasts interested in the then New Zealand Railways. Membership is open to all with an interest in the New Zealand Railway system both old and new. Member groups meet in mos...

02/06/2026

Distant outpost of the Empire

Orawia in Western Southland was the most distant part of the NZR empire from head office, more than 1,000 km from Wellington by rail, let alone sea.

The line to Orawia from nearby Tuatapere opened in the 1920s. Locally milled timber and cement from the works at Orawia (building remains visible in left background of the attached image) was the main traffic.

In 1952, Orawia was served by a goods train from Tuatapere on Monday and Wednesday evenings, an extension of a scheduled afternoon goods train that ran from/to Invercargill five days per week. The last reference to any passenger service to Orawia is in the NZR Working Timetable dated 1929, a three-day per week mixed train from/to Invercargill.

The line back to Tuatapere closed completely in 1970 shortly after the cement works closed and the site has gradually reverted to nature since then. The line from Thornbury to Tuatapere, the post-1970 terminus of the line, closed in 1976.

The attached image was taken by Ewan McQueen in February 1990 and shows the surviving remnants at that time, a still clearly-named goods shed and a more distant loading bank. The image is one of many stored in the society’s TrainFinda system.

02/06/2026

Step Back in Time - Article 36 from an early issue of New Zealand Railway Observer is now on our website.
This article is Steam Finale - When a South Island "Ja" Went North - N. Cooper Recounts (Volume 30, Number 1, Autumn 1973)
Earlier Step Back in Time Articles are available on the website under the Publications Tab (historical NZRO articles).

Welcome to the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Now on Facebook Go to Facebook The Society was formed in 1944 by enthusiasts interested in the then New Zealand Railways. Membership is open to all with an interest in the New Zealand Railway system both old and new. Member groups meet in mos...

27/05/2026

Step Back in Time - Article 35 from an early issue of New Zealand Railway Observer is now on our website.
This article is A Scenic Bush Railway - Impressions of a New Zealand Saw Mill by A.P. Godber, ex Assistant Machine Shop Foreman, NZR. he "Dx" Class Locomotives Enter Service (Volume 30, Number 1, Autumn 1973)
Earlier Step Back in Time Articles are available on the website under the Publications Tab (historical NZRO articles).

Welcome to the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Now on Facebook Go to Facebook The Society was formed in 1944 by enthusiasts interested in the then New Zealand Railways. Membership is open to all with an interest in the New Zealand Railway system both old and new. Member groups meet in mos...

22/05/2026

New Book Alert.....its arrived and for those that pre-ordered yours will be posted out next week.
Designed to transport produce from the productive hinterland farms, plus limestone and coal deposits to the port and beyond, North Otago’s numerous branch lines successfully fulfilled these tasks through the decades. Author Arthur De Maine covers in detail the features and operation of each line. Branches covered are: Kurow, Waitaki dam extension, Ngapara, Tokarahi, Dunback and Makareao, the formative Port Moeraki branch and the little-known S**g Point branch and Allendale Coal Company line.

A4 portrait format, softbound, 97 black & white and 11 colour photographs,

5 diagrams, 11 maps, 126 pages

www.railsoc.org.nz

On-line order form under the Publications Tab on the Society's website.

20/05/2026

Close to Home

The NZRLS archives building is located close to the Hutt River at Ava.The nearby rail bridge over the Hutt River has been in the local news of late due to issues around its repairs, in particular whether the pedestrian walkway on the northern side of the bridge would be included in the work being done by KiwiRail on the bridge.

The attached photographs from the NZRLS photograph collection show the bridge, including the pedestrian portion, under construction in the 1920s during the building of the (then) branchline between Petone and Waterloo that is now part of the main line through the Hutt Valley and on to the Wairarapa and beyond.

20/05/2026

Step Back in Time - Article 34 from an early issue of New Zealand Railway Observer is now on our website.
This article is The "Dx" Class Locomotives Enter Service (Volume 29, Number 4, Summer 1972-73 )
Earlier Step Back in Time Articles are available on the website under the Publications Tab (historical NZRO articles).

Welcome to the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Now on Facebook Go to Facebook The Society was formed in 1944 by enthusiasts interested in the then New Zealand Railways. Membership is open to all with an interest in the New Zealand Railway system both old and new. Member groups meet in mos...