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.

After listening to submissions at GWRC's 23 November hearing on our proposal, we are writing to advise that the Trust has revised the walkway specification, increasing the walkway / cycleway width to 4.0m, and reducing the gradient of the contour route to 0-5%.

Attached copy of the executive summary of application to Greater Wellington Regional Council, incorporating amendments made 2nd December 2011, being:

• increased walkway width to 4.0m
• gradients of the contour route specified at 0-5%

These changes have been made in response to requests for revision of the walkway specification, which can be viewed and downloaded from the New walkway page.

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.

The FAQ section of our site has been extended with discussion of many areas of the railway project.

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.

A quick note - currently migrating the site onto a Drupal CMS, navigation will be completed this evening.

Cheers!

Today we placed 6 cubic metres of concrete into the rail vehicle shed inspection pits. Big thanks to Rimutaka Trust for funding, and John de Graaff for finishing and floating the concrete.

The new floor is a long-awaited enhancement to facilities in the shed. Over the past 18 months we have installed inspection pit steel columns and running rails for one road, which is already in use.

A lot of progress has been made with track laying at Maymorn since the formation was excavated and prepared in late 2009. Work has occurred in two main areas: the yard throat connecting the mainline with the rail vehicle shed, and our future mainline heading northwards through the station yard.

The Trust made a submission to Maymorn structure plan, stressing the importance of the railway corridor to the overall railway project. The Trust is appreciative of the efforts made by Upper Hutt City Council, through its consultants — Beca, to incorporate the railway alignment into the Plan.

On Monday 15 August 2011 the Maymorn site got an unusually deep dumping of snow, as did the rest of Upper Hutt, Wellington and much of the country!

Roads were passable again by Wednesday, when the photo on this page was taken.

We suffered a small amount of damage to the rail vehicle shed, with 18 metres length of gutter clips bent out of shape. Thankfully the damage did not extend any further...

On 8 and 9 March 2011 some 320 cubic metres of ballast was delivered to our Maymorn site. Holcim (New Zealand) Limited donated the ballast from their Kiwi Point Quarry, Wellington, and Pelorus Trust covered the cost of transport. The ballast will be used with mainline and loop track construction at the Trust’s Maymorn station. This is a valuable addition to previous deliveries of ballast in 2010, sponsored by the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand.

On 26 February 2011 we fastened down the last ridge cap and declared the roof finished!

The Trust welcomes debate on the historical accuracy of the name Remutaka, the name that was given to the mountain range by Haunuiananaia, an ancestor of the Te Ati Hau a Paparangi people of the Whanganui region. The railway reinstatement project seeks to faithfully replicate our railway heritage - and accuracy of place names also deserves our attention and respect.
Hugh McCracken, Chairperson.

The Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust has had two grants totalling $75,000 approved for a rail vehicle shed at Maymorn. The Community Trust of Wellington has approved a grant of $50,000 in conjunction with a $25,000 Rimutaka community grant from Trust House.

The rail vehicle shed will protect, conserve, and allow for the future restoration and maintenance of the Trust’s current fleet of heritage carriages. It will also provide similar facilities for steam and diesel locomotives that will be based at the railway in the future.