Full Steam Ahead - The NZR Gang At Oamaru circa 1905

Q Class locomotive and Railway Station employees, Oamaru, circa 1905, Real phhoto postcard

A Q Class locomotive of New Zealand Railways at Oamaru, South Island  circa 1905. RPPC was sent as a Christmas greeting to family members from the gang at the Oamaru station. Sender remarks that the loco's lamp is one of the latest electric lamps from a workshop in Chicago.

Many decades later I rode the freight trains at Oamaru with my uncle who was a guard (conductor - yeah, I know no passengers so no tickets to punch; a guard "guarded" the train, not for "security" but "(rail)road" safety). By those times, diesels had taken over. Good times - toasting sandwiches on the pot belly stove in the guard's van. In the steam era, got to ride up front in the cab, shoveling some coal, blowing the whistle, hand on the throttle or whatever they call it, head out the window, cinders in the eye...

Sadly, kids can't do that anymore thanks to occupational safety and health. Go play a video game, kid. Wouldn't trade those memories for anything (sniff). God bless you Uncle Norman, up there in the big roundhouse in the sky.

Otira Tunnel Midland Railway Southern Alps New Zealand

Construction yard at entrance to the Otira tunnel

The Midland line of the New Zealand railways network connects Christchurch on the east coast of the South Island to the West Coast. Confronting many geographic obstacles, the line must traverse the Southern Alps. At Arthur's Pass, a tunnel through the Southern Alps to Otira had to be constructed.

When it was completed in 1923, the Otira tunnel was the longest in the British Empire. Since the dominant railway locomotive technology at the time - steam - was impractical to haul trains through the tunnel, electric locomotives were tasked with hauling trains through the tunnel with steam resuming once again after the trip through the tunnel.

Electric locomotive at Otira

Rail service provided faster and more reliable transport for passengers and supplies to the West Coast, treacherous bars at the mouth of river harbours of Hokitika, Greymouth, and Westport putting shipping at great risk. The West Coast's major products, coal and timber, were more cheaply railed to Canterbury for domestic use and for export from the Port of Lyttelton.