Category: Rail Heritage
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NZ Education, Rail Heritage Communities Mourn Michael Anderson
It is with considerable regret that the New Zealand education and rail heritage communities are mourning the loss of one of their most outstanding contributors, Michael Anderson, who passed away last week. Michael lived much of his life in Christchurch and became active at the Ferrymead Railway, part of the Ferrymead Heritage Park, whilst still…
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Overview: The National Railway Museum of New Zealand
The National Railway Museum of New Zealand is a heritage railway organisation based at the Ferrymead Railway in Christchurch. It was first established around 2003 so it has been in operation for about 20 years. It grew out of ideas for a dedicated exhibition-focused branch of the Ferrymead Railway. Ferrymead itself is somewhat unusual in…
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Waiau Branch Bridges: Research Notes
As part of the work of drawing the Waiau Branch, research was undertaken using Archives New Zealand files to locate and detail the branch’s 33 or more bridges. Les Dew’s book “The Great Northern” was also drawn upon as a source, although it contains some errors. For example, it states that there were 32 bridges…
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Future Prospects For Taieri Gorge Railway: Middlemarch Based Rail Heritage?
As we all know, the Taieri Gorge Railway (the Otago Central Branch from Wingatui to Middlemarch) was saved for preservation by public fundraising with the addition of ratepayer funds from Dunedin City Council. The entire route is within the boundaries of Dunedin City since the local government restructuring of 1989 when smaller counties were amalgamated…
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Taieri Gorge Railway unlikely to continue commercially
Last week we blogged about Dunedin Railways being mothballed. Since then various pieces of information have been published. Based on what has been released to date, we see it as unlikely that the Taieri Gorge line can be continued in its present form as a commercial operation between Wingatui and Middlemarch. We have no viewpoint…
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Taieri Gorge Railway mothballed; OETT selling out its shareholding
It’s been reported in the ODT today that Dunedin Railways is to mothball its operations due to the COVID-19 caused economic recession. 80% of their business comes from overseas tourism, notably cruise ship visits to NZ, which is naturally hugely affected by COVID-19, and it is difficult to run the trips under current lockdown conditions…