narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
and
mountain railway
A mountain railway is a railway that operates in a mountainous region. It may operate through the mountains by following mountain valleys and tunneling beneath mountain passes, or it may climb a mountain to provide transport to and from the sum ...
on the outskirts of the provincial town of
Coromandel
Coromandel may refer to:
Places India
*Coromandel Coast, India
**Presidency of Coromandel and Bengal Settlements
** Dutch Coromandel
*Coromandel, KGF, Karnataka, India
New Zealand
*Coromandel, New Zealand, a town on the Coromandel Peninsula
*Coro ...
on the northwestern coast of the
Coromandel Peninsula
The Coromandel Peninsula ( mi, Te Tara-O-Te-Ika-A-Māui) on the North Island of New Zealand extends north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier protecting the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the we ...
on
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
's
North Island
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...
. The railway leads up the mountain to a viewing platform building 165 m high above the surrounding Coromandel west coast country.
History
The original line was built by the potter Barry Brickell on his 22-hectare property, which he had acquired in 1961, aiming to start a pottery collective. He started construction of the 15-inch gauge rail line in 1975, originally mainly using it to transport clay and pine wood fuel to his kiln.
In 1975, Brickell purchased a larger 60ha block of land, and began working on what would become the Driving Creek Railway and Potteries. The new line would be of gauge instead of gauge, and would serve the same purpose as the original, to bring clay and firewood down from the slopes above the potteries. It would also be used to help re-plant the hillsides on Brickell's property with kauri and other native plants.
The Driving Creek Railway (DCR) was slowly expanded over the next 25 years to become one of the very few completely new railway lines in New Zealand in recent years. The project required significant
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
works due to the steep and complex terrain that the line traverses. Among these are the famous Double-Deck viaduct, three tunnels, ten bridges (including the Double-Deck Viaduct) and inclines as steep as 1 in 14. There is also a short branchline from the potteries to a firewood drying shed, including a short bridge, bridge No 1A, just behind the workshops at Driving Creek; this line is not used by passenger trains, although passengers will see the drying shed as their train climbs from No 1 bridge towards the Lower
Spiral
In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point.
Helices
Two major definitions of "spiral" in the American Heritage Dictionary are:
The line operates a number of items of
rolling stock
The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can b ...
, the most important of which are the three diesel railcars, which were built on site by the railway's own workshops. ''Possum'' (1999) is a 14-seater one-car unit, and ''Snake'' (1992) and ''Linx'' (2004) are 36-seater, three-unit articulated Railcars.
The railway also operates two diesel locomotives; ''Dieselmouse'', an built in 1979 and the first locomotive used on the DCR, and ''Elephant'', an built in 1980. In his book ''Rails toward the Sky'', Barry Brickell stated that ''Dieselmouse'' is harder to drive, and is used as a shunting engine around the potteries and firewood drying shed. ''Elephant'', being more powerful, is used on work trains and to haul ''Possum'', ''Snake'', and ''Linx'' in the event of a mechanical failure. It can also haul the line's solitary passenger carriage, nicknamed the 'Vintage Train', in times when extra capacity is required.
Site features
The line climbs the hill behind Brickell's pottery, changing direction five times at reversing points to zigzag across the face of the hill. At the terminus is a wooden building, the "Eyefull Tower". Although this is a pun on the name
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.
Locally nicknamed "'' ...
(and on the wide land and sea views from the tower), its octagonal design is based on a much nearer landmark, the
Bean Rock Lighthouse
Bean Rock Lighthouse is a lighthouse situated at the end of a reef in the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the only remaining example in New Zealand of a wooden cottage-style lighthouse, and it is one of only a few remaining wo ...
in
Auckland Harbour
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It ...
.
There are a variety of other features on the site, such as a growing areas of re-planted native forest (including kauri), a wildlife sanctuary and a sculpture park (throughout the site and along the rail line, varying pottery and brick artworks abound, and also include retaining walls made of glass bottles).