All in a days work

[Mayner]

Not exactly US/Canadian or Modelling but distinctively American in style probably one of the reasons I settled down here. Our October Bank Holiday weekend is more the equivalent of the UK & Irish May weekend and the mid point of an annual spring tour.

 

This year the tour covered most of the central North Island including a day excursion over one of the local freight only line. On the day the weather was pretty grim cold and overcast, 5 year old daughter thoroughly enjoyed chasing Thomas.

 

 

 

A bit like the Scottish railway photographers story of filming a train while carrying out earthquake research, sometimes I have the knack of being in the right place and combining work and leisure.

 

 

The crew have just completed shunting the Lime Train clear of the main line for loading. Its unusual to see these locos running "elephant' fashion, the return journey will involve approx. 60 miles "long hood' first running. The train is classed as a trip working and thee loco double manned for shunting at the lime works and possibly other industries.

 

 

Later on I heard a whistle and eventually caught up with Thomas, half of the town seem to have stopped work and turned out see the loco being coaled and prepared for the long climb mostly at 1:70 to Poro-o-Tarao Tunnel the first of the major summits for South bound trains.

 

Looking like a typical NZR express from the early 1900s to the late 1960s. The first typically American 4-6-2 Pacific and 4-8-2 Mountain locos were built for use on "Main Trunk Line" in the early 1900s. NZR further developed the type with the 4-6-2 becoming the maid of all work from express passenger to branch line goods from the early 1900s. Large 4-8-4s based on a combination of American and South African practice took over the heaviest trains in the 1930s and a large class of modern 4-8-2 introduced from the 1940s onwards displaced the Pacifics to branch line duties.

 

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Edited October 29, 2014 by Mayner