[EDIT]: Looks like someone from KiwRail either saw me on CCTV (HI!!!!) or saw these photos and decided to put up a fence on the bridge. They'll probably claim Health & Safety and that "it's private land" or "that's trespassing, you could die". Being completely honest here and with all due respect to KiwiRail, but the unions probably wouldn't let jack shit run on that rail. The last time the gracefield line operated was in 2002 and sure, since then it's probably been used to store a few things whilst some stuff was taken out of the workshops, but other than that, it's run down and the only H&S risk to people is rust :D
After finishing up filming trains (Just EMU units really, don't know when the freight comes), I decided on-route back home to stop and check out KiwiRail's Hutt Workshops.
So these are some of the images taken on a quiet Sunday evening, behind the fence of course!
Note: I didn't plan to visit here after filming. If I had I would have brought my actual camera, rather than the action cam I use to film trains.
What I would do just to hop in a Ganz one last time and appreciate the front view, and hop in a DC just to hear that 12-645 engine... obviously it would have to be legal, I don't really want to have to deal with the courts :)
ET 3056 With an unknown Toll Rail Bumble Bee Liveried DC/DBR?
DC 4133 (Fruit Salad Livery) and DBR 1295 (Toll Rail 'Corn Cob' Livery) with unknown Ganz sets behind. Not the first time I have heard of the DB/DBR Class, but definitely the first time seeing one in person!
Another looooong and unknown Ganz set
Remote Control you say... Sounds like Trainz DCC but bigger and more realistic
More ET 3056
More loooong Ganz
We see the workshops in the distance.We can see whats left of the level crossing on Parkside Rd, where freight trains would head into the Gracefield Freight Terminal. This line was mothballed in 2002-ish?
Tracks, tracks, tracks... no tracks, derailment, destruction, well shit...
Same situation on the other side
Yes, that says 1870... I wonder if that is the year?
Interesting difference in track colour
Hutt Workshops off in the distance with the Wainuiomata Hill Road behind.
The track joins up with the sidings at Woburn station and is part of the "Woburn Triangle"
Some rather old points equipment?
If the concrete block won't stop the train, then the missing track where the bridge meets the road will
Track switch in rather good condition. The same can't be said for the track on the Gracefield Siding.
Oooh, I remember seeing one of these on the other side when the bells and barriers were there but not in use. Back then I was tempted to press a button, but I decided that Toll Rail would've been unimpressed if it done anything :D
The one on on Parkside Rd had more options from memory. Individual switches for Barriers, bells etc.
Hutt Park Platform. It used to get people to and from the Hutt Park Raceway.
A 9 Car sign, made of concrete!
$10,000 Dollar fine! Note that the sign still says
New Zealand Railways Corporation in reeeaaally tiny font bottom right. (Edit: NZ Railways Corp is the business name of OnTrack)
Note to KR: Install better drainage
The steel sleepers aren't the only difference here, the fastenings are too!
Bottom to top of image we have Pandrol
e-clip fastenings on Wooden Sleepers, Some springy thing maybe? on Steel sleepers, and Screw Spikes on Wooden Sleepers
Different viewpoint
A rather long workshop shed. The smaller attached buildings below it reminds me of the Cato Blue livery Tranz Rail used.
The front door/sliding gate thingy. HAZCHEM, You have been warned...
Looking up the line
Looking down the line
Switchin it up now
(wow)
Some track they must have forgot about
Now this is interesting. Three Three Bravo with a N pointing to the diverging track leading into the workshops
DSC 2419 looking nice in KR Phase2
And finally, a very lonely Cato Blue DSC 2543 hooked up to some ZH Plug door goods wagons (Minus the doors. Many of these wagons have been converted to ZHC Curtainsiders:
ZHC Image from
here. Copyright DXC 5517
After seeing quite a few DC's in the yard, Many with blue tarpaulins covering the tops, I am left to wonder if any DC's will be left operating by the end of the year.
My only regret after seeing all the Ganz EMU's removed and the beginning of the end for the DC's is that I wished that I was interested in rail from a younger age. When I was younger, the only way to get into Wellington by train was by Ganz Mavag (some exceptions yes but that was mostly the case). Wanted to go to Masterton by train? A DC was most often leading the consist.
I wish that I had actually been as interested in rail back then as I am now. If I was, I would have payed more attention to the fact that I was (sorta) driving an 82 tonne locomotive with a 12 Cylinder engine under the hood at the open day years back. If I knew back then what I knew now about locomotives I could have probably been able to move the bloody thing by myself!
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techladdie
