Heritage Railway Project
The Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust aims to reinstate and operate a world-class heritage railway between Wellington and the Wairarapa. The Railway will be a unique tourist attraction for Wellington and New Zealand, and a major contributor to the regional economy.
DBR1267 hauls special train F44, including Cyclops, three IAB wagons and trailing DBR1200 across Silverstream bridge on its way to Maymorn on Sunday 21 April 2013.
A selection of photographs from Doug Johnston, who followed the special train from Hutt Workshops to Maymorn.
After weeks of planning 'Cyclops' - the sole remaining 3-car English Electric multiple unit set - arrived at the Trust's Maymorn station on Sunday 21 April.
Trust members have put in a huge amount of work into the move. Connecting track was built and a number of other infrastructure and commissioning tasks were brought forward in time for the move. Rail compliance requirements were managed by the Trust, requiring negotiation and signoff from all the parties involved in the move, with final approval issued by the New Zealand Transport Agency on 10 April.
A long-awaited milestone - the first workshop portal frames lifted into position on Saturday 13 April 2013. A huge amount of planning, fundraising and preparation has gone into this part of the shed build, with most work done by Trust members.
The Trust is grateful for donations made towards the steelwork, welding, painting, transport and lift from: Pelorus Trust, The Lion Foundation, Rotary Club of Upper Hutt, the Upper Hutt Summer Carnival and Trust members.
On Saturday 16 February 2013 the frames of steam locomotive Wb 299 were moved inside the rail vehicle shed at Maymorn. This was made possible by track work completed earlier in the day.
This is the culmination of many years work on the shed and track, and adds to the number of historic rail vehicles in the shed.
We have been working on connecting our mainline to the shed yard, including a double slip and two turnouts, all in 91LB/yard rail. The double slip has been extensively rebuilt from a donor asset purchased ex KwiRail during the Wellington rail upgrade programme. Both turnouts have essentially been built from scratch from individual components. The 91LB rail has been cascaded out of our mainline to build the turnouts.