l. The Midland Line

18th March 2007

The Australian and New Zealand railway systems were remarkably diverse, not just in track gauge, but in all aspects of design and operations. However, they all shared a common bond to the British railway school of engineering and operations, and co-operated to a limited extent through mechanisms like the Australian and New Zealand Railway Commissioners Conferences. Of the eight systems, the NZR was perhaps the most independent, there being 2,000 miles of Tasman Sea between Wellington and Sydney. But the NZR was also faced with the greatest challenge in coping with the legacy of James Fairlie, for not only had the NZ Government fallen for his narrow gauge propaganda, like so much of the British railway world in the early 1870’s, but they also agreed to his restrictive structure gauge, supposedly to reduce the cost of building tunnels. At 11’6” high and 8’6” wide, it was probably the most restricted in the world. The Americans had perfected the engineering of cheap standard gauge railways, but due the Civil War and its aftermath their technology remained inaccessible for most of the world until the gauge damage was done.

Faced with growing business, the NZR had to find ways of cramming power into a very small structural envelope while keeping axle loads within the capacity of their light rails. In the early 20th Century the NZR embraced compounding and high boiler pressures, and developed the world’s first 4-6-2 “Pacific” and 4-8-2 “Mountain” designs. Some of these engines were home built at the Hillside or Addington Workshops. Development continued, with the remarkable K class 4-8-4 emerging from their Hutt Workshops during the depths of the Depression in 1932. The K was twenty years ahead of Australian narrow gauge locomotive design, but the Kiwi’s didn’t relax. In 1939 they complimented it with the racy bullet nosed J class Mountain. Built by North British in Glasgow and shipped just in time to avoid German submarines, the J carried a 39 sq.ft firebox, Baker valve gear and Vanderbilt tenders but their axle load was less than 12 tons! One can only speculate about Queensland’s capacity to cope with war traffic had they followed the NZR’s lead. Railcar development was also advanced, with the double ended Vulcans of 1940 establishing a speed record of 78mph (126kph) on test after delivery. Not bad on 3’6” gauge!

As a schoolboy I was taken with pictures of rakish bullet nosed Mountains, strange flat faced 4-8-4’s, beautiful turn of the Century American 4-6-0’s and wood burners with strange spark arresting chimneys. But the cost of crossing the Tasman put paid any thought of a visit. But thankfully I managed to earn enough to fly across on an Air New Zealand Lockheed Electra in December 1967, one month before a big shipment of Japanese hood units killed off the last strongholds of steam in the South Island.

Linwood Lineup	Second Batch	Purposeful Prarie	57 Years of Progress
Peveril	Last Chance	Special Working	Ready for a Fast Run
Uncharacteristically Shiny	Narrow Gauge "38"	Venison in Season	Chasing Efficiency
Right Away!	Scenic Route	Empty Returns	Trouble at Mile Post 85
Banker	Fun on Steam	Modern Safeworking	Pacific at Home
Repair the Cutwaters	Delivery by Flying Fox	Grunt for 1 in 25 Grades	Miners Train