Taieri Gorge Railway
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The Dunedin Railways (TGR) is a museum railway in the region of Otago on the South Island of New Zealand . It operates on a 13-kilometer section of the Main South Line ( Christchurch - Invercargill ) and on a 64 km long section of the disused otherwise route the Otago Central Railway . With a total length of 77 kilometers, it is the longest museum railway in the country.
geography
The route of the Taieri Gorge Railway branches off the Main South Line in Wingatui near Mosgiel on the eastern edge of the Taieri Plains , and then ascends in | North Taieri with a hairpin curve and a gradient of 20 per thousand into the mountainous region. Less than a kilometer after crossing the 197 m long and 47 m high Winagatui Viaduct , the railway reaches the Taieri Gorge , a 38 km long gorge with numerous tunnels and viaducts . Shortly before Pukerangi, it leaves the valley of the Taieri River and crosses the southern part of the Strath Taieri plain to what is now the terminus of Middlemarch .
history
The route of today's Taieri Gorge Railway from Wingatui to Middlemarch is the first section of the Otago Central Railway, which opened in 1891 . Construction of the line began in 1879, and in 1921 it reached its end in Cromwell . The line was the backbone of the inland economic development of the Otago region for almost 100 years. The promotion of road traffic over rail traffic and its more flexible transport options via an increasingly developed road network led to the cessation of operations on April 30, 1990.
The Otago Excursion Train Trust , which has been organizing rail travel with historical train material since October 1979, campaigned for the maintenance of the railway line. However, it took about NZ $ 1 million to get the line back up and running as a tourist attraction. The City of Dunedin bought the Wingatui to Middlemarch route from the New Zealand Railways Corporation in order to be able to operate it privately. She rented the route to the Otago Excursion Train Trust , which raised NZ $ 1.2 million with public support and from then on operated the Taieri Gorge Railway. Funding problems for the trust repeatedly required municipal support. This led to the creation of Taieri Gorge Railway Limited in 1995 , which is jointly owned by the City of Dunedin (72%) and the Trust (28%).
business
The Taieri Gorge Railway Limited is now the operator of the line. It runs the train once or twice a day - depending on the season - between Dunedin station and Pukerangi or Middlemarch . The Taieri Gorge Railway carried 60,000 passengers in 2007 and is a major Dunedin attraction. It is on the tour program of the cruise ships docking in Port Chalmers .
In order to be able to operate the line economically, the tourist offer has been expanded in recent years. The “ Seasider ” was added to the program, a train connection along the coast of the Pacific Ocean to Palmerston, 66 km away . A round tour is also offered, which includes both train connections via Palmerston and Middlemarch and with a guided bus tour to Macraes Flat offers an insight into the Macraes Gold Mine , the largest gold mine in New Zealand.
The remainder of the former route of the Otago Central Railway from Middlemarch to Cromwell has been upgraded to Clyde as the Otago Central Rail Trail for cycling and walking since 2000 . For around 150 kilometers, the route uses the route of the former railway line, with 68 bridges and three tunnels - including the Pries Creek Tunnel and the Poolburn George Tunnel . The route is closed to motor vehicles and has numerous information boards which, like the cycle path itself, are maintained by the Department of Conservation .
literature
- Murray McCaskill: Otago Province or Provincial District . In: Alexander Hare McLintock (Ed.): An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . Wellington 1966 (English, online and 5 other pages [accessed December 15, 2015]).
- Geoffrey B. Churchman, Tony Hurst: The Railways of New Zealand - A Journey through History (Second Edition) . Harper Collins Publishers, Wellington 2001, ISBN 0-908876-20-3 (English).
- Cavin McLean: Dunedin - History, Heritage & Wildlife . University of Otago Press, Dunedin 2003 (English).
Web links
- The History of the Taieri Gorge Railway. Taieri Gorge Limited, archived from the original on December 18, 2013 ; accessed on December 31, 2015 (English, original website no longer available).
- Peter Andrews: The History of the Taieri Gorge Railway. OtagoRailTrail.co.nz, archived from the original on October 16, 2008 ; accessed on December 31, 2015 (English, original website no longer available).
- History of the Land. Taieri Gorge Limited, archived from the original on April 12, 2012 ; accessed on December 31, 2015 (English, original website no longer available).
- Otago Central Rail Trail - New Zealand's Original Rail Trail. Otago Central Rail Trail Charitable Trust, accessed November 10, 2011 .
Individual evidence
- ^ The History of the Taieri Gorge Railway. Taieri Gorge Limited, archived from the original on December 18, 2013 ; accessed on December 31, 2015 (English, original website no longer available).
- ^ Dunedin City Holdings Limited (Ed.): Anual Report 2008 . Dunedin 2008 (English).
- ^ New Zealand's First Rail Trail. Otago Central Rail Trail Charitable Trust, archived from the original on February 4, 2012 ; accessed on September 16, 2014 (English, original website no longer available).
Coordinates: 45 ° 52 ′ 32.9 ″ S , 170 ° 30 ′ 31.4 ″ O