Although there are still a few locos running around in fruit salad colours 25 years since the last loco was officially painted, I was pleasantly surprised to catch a pair of them coming into Greym... (more)

As the rain comes down, Mike Kilsby amps up the power on train 826 after stopping to attach three bankers (helper locos) for the 3% climb up through the 8km (5 mile) long Otira Tunnel.

The Fifty One Things. The night train photographers I know say there are fifty things that can go wrong when taking these pictures - and I’ve experienced most of them. I’ve fallen several ... (more)

In the early hours of the morning, banker driver Mike Kilsby idles train 826 out of the Otira tunnel and across the highest point of the Midland Line which links the east and west coasts of the So... (more)

A question I’d had at the back of my mind for many years was whether it might be possible to flash one of the Midland Line viaducts. While there was always the lingering fear that after a great de... (more)

The pointy end of loaded coal train 846 glides through the yard at Otira.

If you're ever on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, you owe it to yourself to enjoy what is arguably the Best Burger In the World and perhaps the second best tempura-coated fish a... (more)

Apologies for disturbing this bovine trio grazing in damp farmland near Kotuku while the Tranz scuttles past in the background.

After traveling across the South Island from the east coast to the west in the morning, the TranzAlpine heads back home again in the afternoon. The train is snapped here following the Arnold river... (more)

While the eastern rail approach to the Southern Alps is more rugged and dramatic, the West Coast (which has unfairly garnered a reputation as having a permanent pall of miserable weather) has a ch... (more)

Ahh no! they've replaced the character-laden rickety old wooden bridge across the Cass River with this clean and functional item. DCs 4513 + 4761 head west with a decent off-season train of seven ... (more)

In the early evening of 11 October 2012, DC 4755 and oddball DXC 5310 bring Hokitika goods train 826 through the historic Moana station precinct on the shore of Lake Brunner. I'd planned to take t... (more)

DXs 5258 and 5327 leave the Waimakariri River behind with their coal train and head for Cass. The bridge here over the Cass river has recently been replaced by a less-quaint concrete version.

5258 and 5327 work eastwards past the Mt White Bridge across the Waimakariri River

A pair of cleanish KiwiRail DCs roll the TranzAlpine passenger train across the Broken River Viaduct, the third of four viaducts it will cross on its westward journey. While it's hardly the Orient... (more)