The Napier Express was a passenger express train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department initially between Napier and Palmerston North and later between Napier and Wellington. It ran from 1891 until 1954.
The Napier Express was a passenger express train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department initially between Napier and Palmerston North and later between Napier and Wellington. It ran from 1891 until 1954.
On 13 October 1874, the first section of the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line opened between Napier and Hastings. Over the following 17 years the line steadily extended into the Hawkes Bay interior, and on 9 March 1891 it opened through the Manawatū Gorge to Palmerston North. Construction of the Wairarapa Line from Wellington was steadily advancing towards its junction with the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line at Woodville, at the eastern, Hawkes Bay, end of the Manawatū Gorge, but the only rail access to Wellington at the time was via the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company's line (WMR) up the west coast between Wellington and Longburn, just south of Palmerston North. The Railways Department introduced the Napier Express as a dedicated passenger service between Napier and Palmerston North, with connections to the WMR for passengers to Horowhenua, the Kāpiti Coast, and Wellington. This was a significant upgrade for passengers on the Napier line, as services had previously just been slow mixed trains, carrying both passengers and freight.
The Napier Express commenced just after the railway opened to Palmerston North in 1891 and ran once each way daily, typically hauled by a J class steam locomotive. Despite its 'express' name and superiority over mixed services, it was quite slow by modern standards. The southbound service left Napier at 10.45am and the WMR connection arrived in Wellington at 9.50pm. Today the same journey takes less than half the time.
The service was soon to take longer, although the need to change trains was eliminated. On 11 December 1897 the Wairarapa Line reached Woodville, creating a Railways Department line between Wellington and Napier. The Napier Express then was diverted from Palmerston North, running to Wellington via the Wairarapa. This route included the Rimutaka Incline, which caused the journey time to increase by an hour, a move unpopular with passengers. Two Rogers K class locomotives were transferred from the South Island to operate the trains, and in 1899 they were joined by two more South Island locomotives, of the N class, allowing the timetable to be accelerated to 10.5 hours. N class engines were sometimes assisted by M class tank locomotives, and this combination was referred to as the 'en and chicken.
In 1908, the WMR was purchased by the government and incorporated into the national network. In 1909 the Napier Express was diverted from the Wairarapa Line, through the Manawatū Gorge to Palmerston North, and then to Wellington over the former WMR track. resulting in a substantial improvement in running time.
On 20 February 1911 when the express was approaching Paekākāriki from the south, a large boulder dislodged from above on the Paekakariki Escarpment rolled down onto a second class carriage, killing Miss Alice Power (23y) from Greymouth who was travelling with two friends. [1] [2] [3]
By 1914 the travel time was 9 hours 4 minutes with track improvements in 1914 which allowed the speed limit in some places to be raised to 73 km/h and the more powerful A class locomotives was introduced about 1917-18. By 1925, it was down to 7 hours 31 minutes, partly due to the new AB class locomotives, and a further improvement in 1939 was 7 hours 17 minutes when the Tawa Flat Deviation eliminated the torturous, winding route via Johnsonville into Wellington and the K class began operating the expresses. [4] By 1949 the travel time between Wellington and Napier was seven hours.
The Railways Department had been experimenting with railcars for provincial and rural services since 1912, and in the 1930s they started to become successful. In the 1940s they proved popular on other Hawkes Bay services, and due to their greater efficiency and lower running costs the Railways Department began considering replacing the Napier Express with a railcar service. In 1954, due to a severe shortage of crews, and coal, the Express was withdrawn just days before Christmas, and replaced by an RM class Standard railcar service. The railcars were a considerable improvement over the Express, operating twice daily in each direction and covering the journey in just 5.5 hours. The Standard railcars were augmented and replaced by the new, higher capacity RM 88-seater railcars the following year. Carriage expresses returned to the route in 1972 with the introduction of the Endeavour , which was replaced by the Bay Express in 1989. When the Australian company West Coast Railways took over passenger services in 2002, this was one of the services that was withdrawn before sale.
The N class were 12 steam locomotives that operated on the national rail network of New Zealand. They were built in three batches, including one batch of two engines for the private Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, the WMR, by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1885, 1891, and 1901. Previously the N class designation had been applied between 1877 and 1879 to Lady Mordaunt, a member of the B class of 1874.
The Wairarapa Line is a secondary railway line in the south-east of the North Island of New Zealand. The line runs for 172 kilometres (107 mi), connects the capital city Wellington with the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line at Woodville, via Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Masterton.
The NZR RM class Wairarapa railcar was a class of railcars on New Zealand's national rail network. They entered service in 1936 and were classified RM like all other classes of railcars in New Zealand; they came to be known as the "Wairarapa" class as they were designed to operate over the famous Rimutaka Incline to the Wairarapa region on the Wairarapa Line. They also acquired the nickname of "tin hares" in New Zealand railfan jargon. The first two to be introduced re-used the numbers RM 4 and RM 5 that had previously been used by the withdrawn experimental Model T Ford railcars. The class consisted of six passenger railcars and one passenger-freight railcar. It is often described incorrectly as a class of six railcars.
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.
The New Plymouth Express was a passenger express train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) between Wellington and New Plymouth. It ran from 1886 until 1955 and was sometimes known as the New Plymouth Mail due to the Railway Travelling Post Office carriages included in its consist. The Express was notable amongst NZR's provincial expresses as being both the first and, until the commencement of the Gisborne Express in 1942, the longest in distance travelled.
The Wairarapa Mail was a passenger train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) between Wellington and Woodville, continuing on to Palmerston North as a mixed train. It ran from 1909 until 1948 and its route included the famous and arduous Rimutaka Incline.
The Hutt Valley Line is the electrified train service operated by Transdev Wellington on behalf of Metlink on the section of the Wairarapa Line railway between Wellington and Upper Hutt, New Zealand.
Masterton railway station is a single-platform, urban railway station serving the town of Masterton in New Zealand's Wairarapa district. Located at the end of Perry Street, it is one of three stations in Masterton, the others being Renall Street and Solway. Masterton station is the terminus for Wairarapa Connection passenger services on Metlink's Wairarapa Line from and to Wellington. The average journey time to Wellington is one hour and forty-three minutes.
The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line (PNGL) is a secondary main line railway in the North Island of New Zealand. It branches from the North Island Main Trunk at Palmerston North and runs east through the Manawatū Gorge to Woodville, where it meets the Wairarapa Line, and then proceeds to Hastings and Napier in Hawke's Bay before following the coast north to Gisborne. Construction began in 1872, but the entire line was not completed until 1942. The line crosses the runway of Gisborne Airport, one of the world's only railways to do so since Pakistan's Khyber Pass Railway closed.
The Marton–New Plymouth line (MNPL) is a secondary main line railway in the North Island of New Zealand that links the Taranaki and Manawatū-Whanganui regions. It branches from the North Island Main Trunk railway (NIMT) at Marton and runs near the South Taranaki Bight of the west coast before turning inland, meeting the Stratford–Okahukura Line (SOL) at Stratford and running to New Plymouth. Construction of the line was completed in 1885, and along with the SOL it provided an alternate route to the NIMT from the SOL's completion in 1933 until the latter was mothballed in 2010. In its early days it was plied by the North Island's first regional express, the New Plymouth Express, but it has been freight only since the cancellation of the last passenger services in 1977.
Woodville railway station is the northern terminus of the Wairarapa Line and is located at the junction with the Palmerston North–Gisborne Line in the small Tararua town of Woodville, 27 km (17 mi) east of Palmerston North in New Zealand's North Island.
Pahiatua railway station is on the Wairarapa Line in New Zealand's North Island. It was opened in May 1897, shortly before the line was opened to Woodville in December of that year. The station is located in Mangamutu, 1.7 kilometres (1.1 mi) west of Pahiatua, in contrast to the original plans for the railway line to run through the town.
Fernside railway station was a flag station that served the small rural community of Fernside, north-east of Featherston in New Zealand’s North Island. It was located on the Wairarapa Line near the southern bank of the Tauherenikau River. The station opened to traffic in 1880 and closed nearly a century later in 1975.
Dalefield railway station was a station on the Wairarapa Line that served the small rural community of Dalefield, just south of Carterton in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand’s North Island. It survived for just over a century from when the line opened in 1880 until it was closed in 1981.
Mangamahoe railway station served the small rural community of Mangamahoe in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand’s North Island. It was located on the Wairarapa Line between the stations of Mauriceville and Eketahuna with vehicular access from Station Road. It is the northernmost station site on the Wairarapa Line within the jurisdiction of the Greater Wellington Regional Council before the line passes into territory governed by Horizons Regional Council.
Mauriceville railway station was a rural railway station that served the small village of Mauriceville in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand’s North Island. It was located on the Wairarapa Line between the stations of Kopuaranga and Mangamahoe with direct vehicular access from Opaki Kaiparoro Road.
The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company was a private railway company that built, owned and operated the Wellington-Manawatu railway line between Thorndon in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and Longburn, near Palmerston North in the Manawatu, between 1881 and 1908, when it was acquired by the New Zealand Government Railways. Its successful operation in private ownership was unusual for early railways in New Zealand.
Opaki railway station served the small rural village of Opaki, 6 km (3.7 mi) north of Masterton, in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand’s North Island. It was located on the Wairarapa Line between the stations of Masterton and Kopuaranga with vehicular access from Wingate Road.
Eketahuna railway station was a station on the Wairarapa Line, a railway line that runs through the Wairarapa region of New Zealand's North Island. Located between the stations of Mangamahoe and Newman, it served the small southern Tararua town of Eketahuna and was one of the few attended stations on the northern section of the line.
Kopuaranga railway station was a flag station that served the small rural settlement of Kōpuaranga, 12½ km north of Masterton, in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand’s North Island. It was located on the Wairarapa Line between the stations of Opaki and Mauriceville. From its opening in 1886 it handled both passenger and freight traffic for 97 years until closure in 1983.