Dunedin Railways

Formation

The Otago Excursion Train Trust was formed in 1978 to operate excursions on the Otago Central Railway line, running its first train in October 1979. The services grew in popularity and the Trust realised by the 1980s that it had great tourist potential. New carriages were acquired with the "Taieri Gorge Limited" launching in February 1987.

In 1989 the New Zealand Railways Corporation announced the closure of the Otago Central railway line beyond Taieri owing to a lack of freight traffic following the completion of the Clyde Dam. Dunedin City Council then stepped in, purchasing the line as far as Middlemarch in 1990, which was then leased by the Trust to run its trains. The Trust continued to operate the Taieri Gorge Limited, now with its own locomotives (DJ class locomotives withdrawn by NZR in the same year), but needed a further $1m to fund is operations. A community appeal raised $1.2m. The line beyond Middlemarch was lifted during 1991, and the trackbed handed over to the Department of Conservation in 1993. It is now the Otago Central Rail Trail, a major cycling tourist attraction in the area.

On 8 March 1995 the Dunedin City Council (through its holding company Dunedin City Holdings Limited) and the Trust incorporated a new company, Taieri Gorge Railway Limited. Dunedin City Holdings has a majority of shares (72.03%) and the Trust holds the balance of the shares (27.97%). The company operates as a Council-controlled organisation (formerly known as a Local-authority trading enterprise) under Part 5 of the Local Government Act 2002. This was due to the need to raise more capital to finance expansion of the Trusts operation. Dunedin City Council then sold the railway line to the new company, and the Trust sold its locomotives, carriages and other assets to the new company. The company is governed according to its constitution by a board of directors comprising six people. Two of these people are selected by Dunedin City Holdings Limited, two by the Otago Excursion Train Trust and two jointly by both shareholding parties.

Taieri Gorge Limited

The Taieri Gorge Limited is New Zealand's longest tourist railway and stretches along the former Otago Central Railway from the 4 km peg on the Taieri Branch, 18 km west of Dunedin, to Middlemarch, a distance of some 60 kilometres. Between Dunedin and the start of the line its trains operate on KiwiRail's Main South Line via a running rights agreement.

The line travels through spectacular scenery along the banks of the Taieri River, through numerous tunnels and climbing along the Taieri Gorge to the Strath Taieri. It crosses a dozen viaducts, including the southern hemisphere's largest wrought iron structure, and passes through ten tunnels.

At Wingatui Railway Station, the original building and signal box from 1914 has been restored and is one of the best remaining island platform stations in New Zealand. After the line passes through the 437 metres (1,434 ft) long Salisbury Tunnel, the longest on the line, it crosses Mullocky Gully over the 197 metres (646 ft) long Wingatui Viaduct, the largest wrought iron structure in New Zealand since it was built in 1887. The 47m tall viaduct's riveted lattice structure rests on seven concrete and masonry piers.

Shortly after Wingatui Viaduct, the route emerges from Mullocky Gully to join Taieri Gorge, and from then on follows that gorge above Taieri River to just east of Pukerangi. On the way the line passes former stations Parera, Mount Allen, Little Mount Allen, and Christmas Creek, crossing two curved viaducts at the latter two locations. Hindon, still operating as a crossing station, is typically one of the stopping points on the trip. Just before the station, the railway tracks share a combined road-rail bridge with Hindon Road, a local backroad.

Another popular stopping point for photo opportunities is the Deep Stream viaduct. Here the line slowly starts to climb higher and out of the gorge, passing over the Flat Stream viaduct, and "The Notches", a section of short bridges and cuttings through several rocky outcrops, on its way to Pukerangi. Between Pukerangi and Middlemarch, the railway only once more comes close to the Taieri River, where it crosses Sutton Creek over another combined road-rail bridge.

The train operates daily to Pukerangi and on summer Fridays and Sundays to Middlemarch.

Seasider and Dunedin Silver Fern

Dunedin Railways also operates the Seasider tourist train along the coast to Palmerston, north of Dunedin, with bus connections to the Taieri Gorge Limited at Middlemarch. Following the withdrawal of the Southerner by Tranz Scenic in 2002, it is the only passenger train on the Main South Line.

In 2012 Dunedin Railways leased one of the Silver Fern class railcars from KiwiRail for use on the same route as the Seasider.

Rebranded Dunedin Railways

On 23 October 2014 the Taieri Gorge Railway announced that it would be changing its name to Dunedin Railways. For 35 years the Taieri Gorge Railway and the Otago Excursion Train Trust had taken tourists on scenic rail excursions up the Taieri Gorge to Middlemarch and more recently up the coast, north of Dunedin on the Seasider. The reason for the change was so that tourists can link the train trips to Dunedin and it makes it much clearer what the railway is. AO 77 was the first carriage to be repainted into their new blue livery with their name on the sides in October 2014. This was followed by A 3022 and AG 239. In September 2015 A^L 1695 was repainted into their yellow version of livery.

Locomotives

The railway owns eight former New Zealand Railways D^J class locomotives, six of which are currently operational and certified for mainline operation. They are painted in a variant of the modified NZR 'International Orange' scheme carried by the class in the 1980s, where the low nose sides are painted blue instead of yellow and grey cab front. A seventh, DJ 3021 (ex-D^J 1202), is stored in the Middlemarch goods shed pending future restoration after it was purchased from its former home at Ranfurly station where it was statically displayed. The eighth, DJ 3044 (D^J 1204) was acquired from Mainline Steam in 2012 as a source of spare parts and has been dismantled, although most of the components remain intact. Both were painted in the modified 'International Orange' blue scheme and were in 'as withdrawn' condition.

TGR also operates one D^E class locomotive, D^E 504 (TMS DE 1337). This locomotive was acquired from Otago Polytechnic in the early 1990s and is not mainline certified, instead being based at the TGR works depot at the 4 km peg. It previously carried a modified 'International Orange' scheme but was repainted in 2006 to its original livery of Carnation Red with the addition of 'wasp stripes' on the headstocks as it would have carried in the 1970s.

In 2013, Dunedin Railways hired Silver Fern railcar RM 24 from KiwiRail and currently operates this on trips between Dunedin and Waitati. The railcar is currently on hire during the 2013-14 summer season from October to April and will be returned to KiwiRail in April 2014 on conclusion of the lease.

Dunedin Railways formerly operateded a shunting locomotive, T^R 111 at their Dunedin depot as their resident shunting locomotive. This locomotive was obtained by the Otago Excursion Train Trust in 2009 from enthusiast Reid McNaught, who had leased the locomotive to Dunedin Railways since 2006. It was sold to the Canterbury Railway Society in July 2015.

47' 6" wooden body passenger carriages

All trains as of 000000002017-01-01-0000January 2017 include some of Dunedin Railways five ex-New Zealand Government Railways 47" 6' foot wooden cladded carriages. These cars are known as "Scarrett'" heritage carriages, and were built between 1912 and 1923 with open platform ends and gangways and 37 seats. Dunedin Railways has started retiring these carriages largely to provide bogies for their 56-foot stock, which did not have their own when they were purchased. Two of the 47 foot cars have been sold, while two were scrapped circa 1978. One carriage, A 1254, is owned by the Ocean Beach Railway and is leased to Dunedin Railways. This carriage will be returned to the OBR at the conclusion of its lease.

50-foot

Dunedin Railways has currently three steel-clad and one wood-clad NZR 50-foot carriages, formerly used on Dunedin suburban trains and express passenger trains. The steel-clads have 30-37 seats, enclosed vestibules and covered gangways and were built by New Zealand Railways Department in 1931-40. One of these is an AL class car-van with a small luggage compartment at one end while the other two are A class carriages. Steel-cladded cars, As 50159 and 50223 were sold to the Weka Pass Railway in 2008 and AL 50090 was sold to the Midland Rail Heritage Trust in 2013. The wooden clad is A 1327, built in 1913, with open estibules and non-covered gangways.

'Jungle Gym' TGR panorama cars

TGR has three all-steel air conditioned panorama cars with open platform ends and open gangways similar to the 'Scarrett' cars, known locally as 'Jungle Gyms' due to the nature of their framework when under construction. These were designed and built by the OETT in 1987-92, with a "very distinctive shape to fit the tunnels". Two of these carriages were built on Z class 'roadsider' van underframes while the third was built on the underframe of guard's van F 529.

56-foot

In September 2007 the TGR announced that it had purchased 12 NZR 56-foot carriages formerly used on the Wairarapa Connection. The first of these, A 2325, was prepared at a cost of $45,000 and was ready in September 2008. The company anticipated having three carriages in service by the end of 2008, and all 12 by 2013. The upgrade included new seating, carpets, toilets and external paint. The railway intends to refurbish three carriages each year. As of December 2015, only five out of the twelve carriages have been restored. A 3022 is leased from its owners, John and Rolf Christensen. It has been leased to Dunedin Railways since 2013 and has been repainted into Dunedin Railways new livery of dark blue. Dunedin Railways are currently storing 10 AO and 4 ASO carriages for KiwiRail in Middlemarch.

Freight haulage

In the early 2000s the TGR investigated the possibility of introducing log haulage between Mount Allan and Port Chalmers at the end of the Port Chalmers Branch. However, on 12 June 2007 it was announced that a cost difference of NZ$5 million existed between road and rail haulage in favour of road, and potential government subsidies were insufficient to close the gap. The announcement was met with disappointment by the Dunedin City Council, which favourably viewed the rail option as it was more environmentally friendly and would have reduced traffic congestion.

It has since been worked out that with extra damage caused by the logging trucks on the Mosgiel to Port Chalmers road that it would have been cheaper to perform the operation by rail, but despite pleas by the local council, Wenita, the relevant company, said it had invested too much in the road option to change its plans.

The route's loading gauge restricts the maximum size of rolling stock that can operate on the railway; some freight wagons cannot use the line.