Saturday, October 12, 2013

150 blingin' years of rail in NZ!



Today, at Wellington Railway Station, there was an exhibition celebrating 150 years of rail in New Zealand. I use a train most days of the week, and who doesn't love a bit of rail history? Psycho killers, that's who.

We started by travelling in on the Matangi, a short but fckn picturesque ride that I take every day to work.

First up was a DA class diesel-electric loco:

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The best thing about this? I got to look under the rocker cover at the massive valvegear:

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...AND THEY STARTED THE BUGGER UP. Heaven.

The kids also sat in the driver's seat, but who cares about that?

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Next up was a JA Class steam guy:

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Old carriages next. Check out the pressed tin ceiling and the cool light fittings:

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Coupla business twerps on their way to the provinces to inspect the raw materials:

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Some sort of wheel conrod component on another steam engine. I dunno the details, sorry:

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Ah right yep, the previous shot is from this guy:

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Imagine this bongoloid in charge of that much tonnage:

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Or worse, THIS bongoloid:

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HELVETICA SCENARIO:

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Rach and Ella being told how this engine was changed from coal- to oil-fired. Betty looks for the ignition key:

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A more different OLDER old carriage with velvet seats:

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"Angelic" (note scare quotes):

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You know how, at school, you ironed those badge things with your name on into your undies, so people who know where they belonged if you lost them? They do something similar with trains:

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Another bloody businessman:

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Ever wondered why you see bugger-all sludge on trains? Here's why:

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The new tourist carriages are great, but a bit of a kick in the face for the now-closed Hillside Workshops in Dunners, as they were the last things they built:

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Please click for big on this next one to see a large number of instances of the word "cock", and the phrase "cock end":

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Most people seem to fixate on the codpiece in this picture. How about you?

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THAT'S ENOUGH TRAINS UNTIL MONDAY.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

looks like a lot of fun

dirkd said...

Chur!