Winiata Railway Station on the North Island Main Trunk Line

Group on Winiata railway station, near Taihape, circa 1910. Unidentified photographer. 

Alexander Turnbull Library

 

Maori Farm at Winiata near Taihape, 1894.

 Photo: Edward George Child. Alexander Turnbull Library.

Drop Me A Line in Taihape, Mail Pick Up on the Main Trunk LIne

Now that KiwiRail has reintroduced a 2 minute stop at Taihape on the North Island Main Trunk Line (NIMT), the former means of dropping off & picking-up passengers at Taihape will no longer be required (see video).

The Illinois Railroad Museum and retired members of the USPO Railway Service show how it was done in the U.S. with mail, rather than people! (Warning to more sensitive viewers: don't be startled by the locomotive horn blasting you off your keyboard).

Mataroa Tunnel on the North Island Main Trunk Line

A man on a jigger on the approach to the Mataroa Tunnel, near Taihape. 

Railway work camp in left background, 1906. Photo: Albert Percy Godber.

Alexander Turnbull Library.

The Mataroa railway tunnel on the North Island Main Trunk Line,near Taihape, 1906.

Photo: Albert Percy Godber. Alexander Turnbull Library.

Taihape Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack on the Main Trunk Line!

On 19 October 2009, KiwiRail announced that Taihape was being placed back on the list of stops on the Overlander passenger train's schedule on the North Island Main Trunk Line.

Removed from scheduled stops in 2005 as passenger numbers on the Overlander fell, Taihape is back for a one-year trial.

North- and southbound trains will stop for a 2 minute spell.

If you want a cuppa you'll have to be quick. Maybe text ahead to one of the cafes and see if they'll meet you on the platform!

Seriously, though, get off the train for a day or two and experience Taihape. Accommodation has been upgraded from the barky hut pictured in the post below.

Disclaimer: The Taihape Tourist Board and this blogger have no financial or other relationship.

Taihape on the Main Trunk Line #3

Reid Family outside home. George Edward Reid, Annie Reid, and children Myrtle and George, alongside a hut on Toe Toe Road, Taihape, circa 1897. Punga fern trunks supply the walls of the hut with shingled roof. Clearing timber around the homestead. 

Photo: Edward George Child.  Alexander Turnbull Library.

Taihape on the Main Trunk Line #2

 Main or Hautapu Street?, Taihape, 1907-08, about the time the North Island Main Trunk line 

was completed. Photo: Frederick George Radcliffe. Alexander Turnbull Library.

 

Jackson and McCormick's general store, Taihape, circa 1900, fashioned out of corrugated iron.

Photo: Unidentified photographer. Alexander Turnbull Library

 

H J Boughton's General Store with Model T Ford out front, Taihape, circa early 1920s.

Unidentified photographer. Alexander Turnbull Library.

Taihape on the Main Trunk Line #1

 Taihape Railway Station with Refreshment Rooms on right, 

North Island Main Trunk Line, circa 1910.

Photo:  Frederick George Radcliffe. Alexander Turnbull Library

 

R T Batley's Wool Wagon on its way to the railhead, Taihape, circa 1910. McCormick Boot Emporium and Wong You's fruit and grocery store in background. Unidentified photographer. Alexander Turnbull Library

 

Rail Yards at Taihape, circa 1925, signal box in left foreground 

and stockyards to the right of tracks.Unidentified photographer.

Alexander Turnbull Library.

Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line

Timespanner had this video on her blog recently. Just had to add it here. Peter Cape's song "Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line" provides the soundtrack to the video. Taumarunui in the King Country was a key town on the North Island main trunk railway line between Wellington and Auckland. Just past Taumarunui is the Raurimu Spiral, an engineering feat enabling trains to haul freight up otherwise insurmountable grades. You can see a model of the spiral in the video.

If you want to sing along with Peter, you can find the lyrics here, with a bit more background.

Though not of the Taumarunui refreshments room, here are a couple of interior shots of what the traveling public encountered in 1910 and 1952 when their trains made a stop for a sandwich and a cuppa. Click on images for a larger view.

 Interior of the Tearooms at Wanganui Railway Station, circa 1910. 

Photo: Tesla Studio. Alexander Turnbull Library

The counter at the Christchurch Railway Station Refreshment Rooms, 
7:30 am, 21 July 1952. Evening Post Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library