Middlemarch is a small town in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island. It lies at the foot of the Rock and Pillar Range of hills in the broad Strath-Taieri valley, through which flows the middle reaches of the Taieri River. Since local government reorganisation in the late 1980s, Middlemarch and much of the Strath-Taieri has been administered as part of Dunedin city, the centre of which lies some 80 km to the southeast. Middlemarch is part of the Taieri electorate, and is currently represented in parliament by Ingrid Leary. Middlemarch has reticulated sewerage but no reticulated water supply. A description of 1903, that "[T]he summer seasons are warm, but not enervating, and the winters cold, but dry" is still true today.
Railway preservation in New Zealand is the preservation of historically significant facets of New Zealand's rail transport history. The earliest recorded preservation attempt took place in 1925, although the movement itself did not start properly until 1960.
Dunedin Railways is an operator of a railway line and tourist trains based at Dunedin Railway Station in the South Island of New Zealand. The railway is a council-controlled trading organisation owned jointly by the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Excursion Train Trust.
Strath Taieri is a large glacial valley and river plateau in New Zealand's South Island. It is surrounded by the rugged hill ranges to the north and west of Otago Harbour. Since 1989 it has been part of the city of Dunedin. The small town of Middlemarch is located at its southern end.
The Otago Central Rail Trail is a 150-kilometre walking, cycling and horse riding track in the South Island of New Zealand. A pioneering project for New Zealand, the successful rail trail joined the New Zealand Cycle Trail umbrella organisation in 2012, having been one of the inspirations for it.
Wedderburn is a community in Central Otago, New Zealand. It is located 15 kilometres northwest of Ranfurly, and was at one time close to the centre of a thriving gold and coal mining area. The name of Wedderburn was given to the area by John Turnbull Thomson, and is one of the names in his infamous "Thomson's Barnyard", wedder being Northumbrian dialect form of the word wether, meaning a castrated sheep.
The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin. It is one of the most important railway lines in New Zealand and was one of the first to be built, with construction commencing in the 1860s. At Christchurch, it connects with the Main North Line to Picton, the other part of the South Island Main Trunk.
The Port Chalmers Branch was the first railway line built in Otago, New Zealand, and linked the region's major city of Dunedin with the port in Port Chalmers. The line is still operational today.
The Outram Branch was a branch line railway near Dunedin, Otago that operated from 1877 to 1953 and formed part of New Zealand's national rail network.
The New Zealand DJ class locomotive is a type of diesel-electric locomotive in service on the New Zealand rail network. The class were built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and introduced from 1968 to 1969 for the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) with a modernisation loan from the World Bank to replace steam locomotives in the South Island, where all of the class members worked most of their lives. Nine of the locomotives remain in use, mainly with Dunedin Railways.
The New Zealand DE class locomotive is a New Zealand class of shunting diesel-electric locomotives. The New Zealand Railways intended to replace steam locomotives for shunting duties with this class. They are physically similar to the Tasmanian Government Railways X class, which were also of English Electric design.
The Hyde railway disaster occurred on 4 June 1943 near the small settlement of Hyde, New Zealand on a bend of the Otago Central Railway. At the time, it was New Zealand's worst railway accident; of the 113 passengers on board, 21 were killed and a further 47 were injured. But just over ten years later, the Tangiwai disaster took 151 lives on 24 December 1953. The Hyde disaster remains as the second worst railway accident in New Zealand's history.
The Roxburgh Branch was a branch line railway built in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island that formed part of the country's national rail network. Originally known as the Lawrence Branch, it was one of the longest construction projects in New Zealand railway history, beginning in the 1870s and not finished until 1928. The full line was closed in 1968.
The Dunback and Makareao Branches were two connected branch line railways, part of New Zealand's national rail network. Located in the Otago region of the South Island, both lines were 15 km in length and shared the first 11 km. The Dunback Branch, also known as the Waihemo Branch, opened in 1885 and closed in 1968; the Makareao Branch, also known as the Inch Valley Railway or the Inch Valley Branch, opened in 1900 and operated for 89 years to 1989.
The NZR RM class Vulcan railcars were operated by the New Zealand Government Railways (NZR) in the South Island of New Zealand. All New Zealand railcars are classified as RM , and this class derived their nomenclature from the name of the manufacturer, the Vulcan Foundry of Britain.
Project Steam is a railway preservation society based in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is dedicated to the restoration of steam locomotives formerly operated by the New Zealand Railways Department, with its goal to restore at least one locomotive to main line operating conditions in order to operate excursions from Dunedin Railway Station. The society is currently the only one of its kind in Dunedin; the Ocean Beach Railway operates small tank locomotives but on private trackage, and the popular Taieri Gorge Limited is run solely by diesel locomotives.
Wingatui is a small settlement almost 15 kilometres west of Dunedin, and two kilometres east of Mosgiel. It has become a suburb of Mosgiel, but continues to maintain its own unique identity and heritage.
State Highway 87 (SH 87) is a state highway in New Zealand servicing the Taieri Plains and the Strath-Taieri Valley in Otago, connecting Mosgiel to Kyeburn on the eastern flank of the Maniototo Plains.
The Poolburn Gorge is a gorge located in the Central Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand, 4 km east of the small settlement of Lauder. The Ida Burn flows through the 2.5 km long canyon across the Raggedy Range between the Ida Valley and the Manuherikia Valley. There are no public roads through the gorge; only the track of the former Otago Central Railway, now used as the Otago Central Rail Trail, follows the river on the southern flanks of the gorge.
Hindon is a small settlement in inland Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located 24 kilometres (15 mi) northwest of Dunedin in the Silverpeaks Range, close to the edge of the Strath Taieri. The Taieri Gorge Railway runs through Hindon on its way between Dunedin and Middlemarch.
