Blogs

On Saturday 18 August we put a little more work into the doubleslip that we're rebuilding from a kit of parts. In the above, Colin, Peter and John were drilling holes for a checkrail at the Kaitoke end of the slip, the checkrail and running rail having originated from a turnout purchased from KiwiRail at Taita.

The outer slip rail on the KiwiRail side needed further attention to ensure a good fit to the switch. There was some residual curvature that needed to be crowed out - a 40 minute job...

Saturday 26 May was a well-attended work day at Maymorn - with progress made on many key jobs.

By 8 a.m. we were pouring 25MPa concrete, casting two foundation walls for the Rail Vehicle Shed workshop extension, completing the floor alongside road 2, and the first of three pours for the rail-bearing inspection pit wall.

New Zealand Transport Agency report in their latest Rail Safety Update that 628,229 passengers traveled on rail heritage and tourist trains during the 2010-2011 year. 50 heritage and tourist rail operators are licenced to operate heritage and tourist trains on either the National Rail System or on their own network operations. The figures exclude long-distance passenger trains operated by KiwiRail, metro operations at Auckland and Wellington, and the Wellington Cable Car, which add a further 21 million journeys each year.

A note that the full walkway specification submitted to Greater Wellington Regional Council as part of our application is available for download and review from the New walkway page, with increased width to 4.0m, with the contour route having reduced gradients to between 0-5%. Direct download: Walkway specification: Maymorn to Summit, revised 2 December 2011 (1.3 MB PDF). We welcome comment and feedback on the specification and route, so that further changes and refinements can be made.

A busy couple of days, with a further visit to Positively Wellington Tourism on Monday, interviews with the Dominon Post, Upper Hutt Leader and today - an interview with Jim Mora on Afternoons, Radio New Zealand (bit.ly/s4jK4r). Many, many aspects of the heritage railway project to discuss and promote, and a key presentation to make to Greater Wellington Regional Council next week.