The Northerner was an overnight passenger train between Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand. The train replaced the unnamed and ordinary express trains supplementing the luxury Silver Star, which had replaced the Night Limited in 1971. The Northerner operated from 1975 to 2004.

History

Overnight services between Auckland and Wellington began in 1908 when the line between the two cities was completed. The inaugural trip took Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward and other Members of Parliament to Auckland to greet the American Pacific Fleet.^[1]

In March 1973 the Minister of Railways Tom McGuigan announced a new train would be introduced to replace the unnamed nightly service.^[2]

In 1976 the Northerner stopped at Wellington, Porirua, Paekakariki, Paraparaumu, Ōtaki, Levin, Palmerston North, Feilding, Marton, Hunterville, Taihape, Waiouru, Ohakune, National Park, Taumarunui, Mangapehi, Te Kuiti, Otorohanga, Te Awamutu, Hamilton, Huntly, Pukekohe, Papakura, Ōtāhuhu and Auckland.^[3]

Motive power

Prior to 3 November 1975, the pre-Northerner services were hauled by D^A class diesel-electric locomotives. With the introduction of the Northerner branding, D^X class locomotives were assigned to the train's haulage. From the 1990s onwards, DF class locomotives were used infrequently, and, on a more permanent basis DC class locomotives were used.

Rolling stock

Originally numbered 227 southbound and 626 northbound, the train used extensively refurbished NZR 56-foot carriages that dated from 1937 to 1940. Ten carriages were built as two-lavatory 31-seat first-class carriages, later designated North Island Main Trunk first-class carriages, for expresses on this route, two (with staff and hostess compartments retained and augmented) as the South Island Main Trunk Main South Line single-lavatory 29 seat equivalent, along with four 16-berth sleeping carriages. In their refurbished form, the day carriages seated 30 in the same type of "bucket" seat and the day cars with staff compartments seated 25. The sleeping carriages still each accommodated 16 (2 berths in 8 cabins). In 1973 larger train sets were planned with the fitting of 20 first-class and sleeping carriages with heaters. The final fit-out of the train was not approved until November 1974 with instructions to complete the rebuild of the minimum rolling stock for the introduction of the express replacement within 12 months.

Three dining carriages were created from 1960s built 60-foot (18.288 m) long aluminium-sheathed Railway Travelling Post Office vans. These vehicles each seated 40 in tip-up bench type seats, each for two persons, arranged in bays of four, alcove style, across tables. Larger kitchens were built due to the extra length provided by these vehicles.

Three matching 56-foot (17.07 m) guard's vans were also heavily overhauled and, due to their role as luggage vans, were fitted with Japanese Kinki-Sharyo manufactured bogies, classed X27250 by NZR, out from under the three 60 ft (18 m) postal vans, these bogies being of a more modern design than those undercarriages at the time and suited for heavier stock.

Four 1960s built 50-foot (15.24 m) steam-heating vans (with the same base design and bogies as the postal vans) built to facilitate heating the carriages of both the Night Limited's and ordinary expresses when diesel-electric locomotives displaced steam locomotives on the NIMT, three 50 ft (15.24 m) wooden box wagons turned postal vans, five more turned parcels vans and four more steel box wagons turned parcel vans completed the consist. The eight parcel vehicles were replaced by 15 box wagons of a more modern design turned parcels vans in the 1980s.

The Northerner was the first of the substantially overhauled carriage trains to be fitted with a new type of bogie of Korean manufacture, which offered a superior quality ride to its Timken-built predecessors, classed X25330. The new bogies, classed X28020 by NZR, were based on the Kinki bogies as well as bogies, classed X28250 by NZR, used underneath the Silver Star carriages. Substantial work was carried out on all 19 carriages underframes to facilitate the 38 bogies' placement underneath. The underframes were raised to make easier the fitting of the newer bogies, and drawgear lowered the same distance.

Following a government decision that operating subsidies for long-distance passenger trains would cease, Sunday 26 April 1987 saw dining cars, sleeping cars, nearly 100 jobs and $4 million in operating costs removed from this service and until Sunday 20 March 1988, the train offered biscuits and fruit juice served from the guards van.

The train was re-equipped with 8 Southerner carriages (former Main South Line first-class carriages) and two former FM class guards vans of a modular design, one from Mitsubishi, the other from Daewoo, turned into power-luggage vans with handbrake end-mounted 11 kW generators. The Northerner service seated 53 or 45 per carriage to compensate for reduced carriages in reclining road coach-style seats as opposed to 30 or 25. From its inception, it also included in the two catering carriages and, in 1992, in the two 37-seat carriages to retain their coupe compartments when three trainsets were made available, video entertainment, comprising a large screen GoldStar television at one edge of the carriage showing movies with the sound piped throughout the carriage. The 15 parcels wagons remained dedicated to the service until 1991, when Speedlink Parcels was sold to New Zealand Post, some still bearing the old yellow Northerner livery.

Sunday 15 April 1991, saw two full buffet carriages, both from the original Southerner, one being prior to that a 56-foot (17.07 m) kitchen and dining car to the North Island 55-foot (16.76 m) Vice-Regal carriage^[4] for the Governor-General of the day, returned to the train as part of an attempt to attract more patronage, along with a faster timetable and reduced seating (41-43 or 37 per carriage) to give passengers more legroom and line seats up with windows. This coincided with one carriage and one catering carriage leaving the Northerner to join the new Capital Connection service.

See also

• The Overlander

References

External links

• Photo of Northerner at Waikanae in 1970s