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

Zealandia Cycle Works - Oates & Lowry Co, Christchurch - Cycling Craze #20

Zealandia Cycle, Hawke's Bay Hearld ad, 2 January 1895.

Oates, Lowry and Co's Zealandia Cycle Works, 82 Manchester Street, Christchurch, circa 1900.

Cyclopedia of New Zealand - Canterbury, 1903, p. 315.

Nicholas Oates, senior partner of the firm of Oate, Lowry, and Co., established the business in 1880 with the firm's Zealandia Cycle Works becoming one of the first cycle manufacturers in New Zealand. Alexander Lowry joined the partnership in 1897.

 

Cyclopedia of New Zealand - Canterbury

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand reported in 1903 that the business located at 82 Manchester Street in Christchurch was housed in a large two storey building. The retail store, the Cyclopedia stated, consists of a "large double-fronted shop, with handsome plate-glass windows, displaying a varied stock of bicycles. Behind are the offices, and at the back is the factory, which is thoroughly equipped with all necessary plant and machinery, and is claimed to be the largest in the Colony."

The firm produced its own Zealandia and Atalanta brand bicycles. "[E]verything connected with cycles, except chains, hubs, saddles, pedals, and rims, is made on the premises; the tubing, rough castings, and wrought iron-work are imported, and turned, finished, and plated on the premises."

Between 30 and 40 workers were employed in cycle manufacturing in Christchurch, while repair facilities were operated out of premises in Timaru, Ashburton and Napier. In 1901, a retail store run by Oates, Lowry was operating in Cuba Street, Wellington and other sales outlets were run on an agency basis throughout the country. For example, F W Ansley's Zealandia Cycle Deport sold Zealandia and Atalanta cycles from his premises in Ridgway Street in Wanganui in 1900.

Oates, Lowry and Co was also the first to import a petrol-driven motor car into the Australasian colonies. No date is given for this event.

Ellesmere Guardian ad, 15 December 1897.

Speedy Cycle Works, Retail Store, Christchurch, early 1900s - Cycling Craze #19

Jack Suckling's Speed Cycle Works located at 114 Manchester Street, Christchurch, circa 1912-14. Jack is the moustached man wearing a cap and watch chain at centre right just a fraction behind the row of cyclists. A number of the "scorchers" (cyclists) are in their racing gear, perhaps for a day's track racing at Lancaster Park or for road racing. Photo: Adam McLay. Alexander Turnbull Library. Click on image for larger view.

Jack Suckling was an integral part of the Christchurch "cycling craze" in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. He ran a retail store at several different locations around the central city in the early 1900s, operating at the corner of Kilmore  and Barbadoes Streets in 1906 but by 1909 had relocated to 256 Oxford Terrace east. By the time the above photo was taken his business had moved to 114 Manchester Street, a street along with High Street, that had become popular among cycle businesses as a retail location.

Jack promoted his Speedy cycles to the young men known as "scorchers", the competitive racing cyclists who lived for either the track races at Lancaster Park and out in the small towns around Canterbury or for the road races across the province. Good money was to be made from winning racing prizes to pay back the price of a cycle, so Jack suggested in his advertising, and he'd make a few bob in the process.

Christchurch Star ad, 27 January, 1906

 

Christchurch Star ad, 6 October 1906

Christchurch Star ad, 26 December, 1908.

So why don't you give Jack a call at Christchurch 2574? Don't be surprised if you get a busy signal.