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New Plymouth Express
The ''New Plymouth Express'' was a passenger express train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) between Wellington and New Plymouth. It ran from 1886 until 1955 and was sometimes known as the ''New Plymouth Mail'' due to the Railway Travelling Post Office carriages included in its consist. The ''Express'' was notable amongst NZR's provincial expresses as being both the first and, until the commencement of the ''Gisborne Express'' in 1942, the longest in distance travelled. Introduction On 23 March 1885, NZR opened the railway line between Palmerston North and New Plymouth, with a short branch from Aramoho to Wanganui. A year and a half later, on 3 November 1886, the privately owned Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company opened from Wellington to Longburn, a small village just south of Palmerston North, where it interchanged with NZR. This allowed a direct train to be run between Wellington and New Plymouth; this also formed part of a newer, quicker route to ...
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New Plymouth Express
The ''New Plymouth Express'' was a passenger express train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) between Wellington and New Plymouth. It ran from 1886 until 1955 and was sometimes known as the ''New Plymouth Mail'' due to the Railway Travelling Post Office carriages included in its consist. The ''Express'' was notable amongst NZR's provincial expresses as being both the first and, until the commencement of the ''Gisborne Express'' in 1942, the longest in distance travelled. Introduction On 23 March 1885, NZR opened the railway line between Palmerston North and New Plymouth, with a short branch from Aramoho to Wanganui. A year and a half later, on 3 November 1886, the privately owned Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company opened from Wellington to Longburn, a small village just south of Palmerston North, where it interchanged with NZR. This allowed a direct train to be run between Wellington and New Plymouth; this also formed part of a newer, quicker route to ...
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Patea
Patea ( ) is the third-largest town in South Taranaki District, New Zealand. It is on the western bank of the Pātea River, 61 kilometres north-west of Whanganui on . Hāwera is 27 km to the north-west, and Waverley 17 km to the east. The Pātea River flows through the town from the north-east and into the South Taranaki Bight. History and culture Pre-European history Patea is the traditional final place where some Māori led by Turi aboard the '' Aotea'' settled, after it was beached at the Aotea Harbour. European settlement Patea, called Carlyle or Carlyle Beach for a time by European settlers, was originally nearer the Pātea River mouth than the present town. During the New Zealand Wars Patea was an important military settlement. General Cameron's force arrived at the river mouth on 15 January 1865 and constructed redoubts on both sides of the river.South Taranaki District Council Heritage files (Local Government Historical Body) Patea became a market town w ...
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Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion began around September and led to the Wall Street stock market crash of October 24 (Black Thursday). It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. Devastating effects were seen in both rich and poor countries with falling personal income, prices, tax revenues, and profits. International trade fell by more than 50%, unemployment in the U.S. rose to 23% and ...
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Railcar
A railcar (not to be confused with a railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (carriage, car), with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railway companies, such as the Great Western, termed such vehicles "railmotors" (or "rail motors"). Self-propelled passenger vehicles also capable of hauling a train are, in technical rail usage, more usually called "rail motor coaches" or "motor cars" (not to be confused with the motor cars, otherwise known as automobiles, that operate on roads). The term is sometimes also used as an alternative name for the small types of multiple unit which consist of more than one coach. That is the general usage nowadays in Ireland when referring to any diesel multiple unit (DMU), or in some cases electric multiple unit (EMU). In North America the term "railcar" has a much broader sense and can be used (as an abbr ...
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NZR RM Class (Standard)
The NZR RM class Standard railcars were a class of railcar operated by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) in the North Island of New Zealand. Officially classified as RM like all other railcar classes in New Zealand, they acquired the designation of "Standard" to differentiate them from other railcar classes. They were introduced in 1938 and withdrawn in 1972. Background Since the 1912 experiments with a MacEwan-Pratt petrol railcar, the New Zealand Railways Department had been seeking an effective and successful railcar design. Many routes simply did not have the demand to economically justify locomotive-hauled passenger express trains, so railcars were seen as a viable alternative. New Zealand's difficult terrain posed problems to railcar design, but in 1936, the Wairarapa railcars were introduced and proved to be a great success on the Wairarapa Line from Wellington over the Rimutaka Incline to the Wairarapa, and following from this, the Standard railcars were desi ...
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NZR RM Class
The RM class was the classification used by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) and its successors gave to most railcars and railbuses that have operated on New Zealand's national rail network. "RM" stands for Rail Motor which was the common name at the turn of the 20th century for what became known in New Zealand as railcars. As many types of railcars are operated, class names have been given to each railcar type to differentiate them from others. Experimental and early railcars In the early 20th century, NZR began investigating railcar technology to provide profitable and efficient passenger services on regional routes and rural branch lines where carriage trains were not economic and "mixed" trains (passenger carriage(s) attached to freight trains) were undesirably slow. A number of experimental railcars and railbuses were developed: * 1912: RM1 MacEwan-Pratt petrol railcar - the first railcar to operate in New Zealand * 1914: RM1 (number re-used) Westinghouse petr ...
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Taranaki Flyer
The ''Taranaki Flyer'' was the name given to a passenger train that was operated by the New Zealand Railways Department between Whanganui and New Plymouth from 1926 to 1965. Introduction The primary passenger service on the Marton–New Plymouth Line was the New Plymouth Express between Wellington and New Plymouth. It was augmented by three slower mixed trains that ran south from New Plymouth daily. In 1926, patronage was sufficiently high to justify replacing one of the mixed trains with a dedicated passenger service between New Plymouth and Whanganui. This train came to be known as the ''Taranaki Flyer''. Operation For most of its life, the ''Taranaki Flyer'' was a carriage train hauled by steam locomotives, and when it was introduced, it took approximately 4.5 hours to complete its journey. On 31 October 1955, the carriage trains were replaced by more economical railcars. The railcars were of the Standard and 88 seater types of the RM class. During the railcar pe ...
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Mixed Train
A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, service was slower, because mixed trains usually involved the shunting (switching) of rolling stock at stops along the way. However, some earlier passenger expresses, which also hauled time-sensitive freight in covered goods wagons (boxcars), would now be termed mixed trains. Generally, toward the end of the mixed train era, shunting at intermediate stops had significantly diminished. Most railway passenger and freight services are now administered separately. Exclusions Not intended by this article is the definition of mixed train to describe: * mixed freight. * wagonload service (single wagons for various customers, assembled into trains), as opposed to trainload service (point to point, complete train for one customer). * a passenger trai ...
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Steam Locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomotive's boiler to the point where it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels. In most locomotives, the steam is admitted alternately to each end of its cylinders, in which pistons are mechanically connected to the locomotive's main wheels. Fuel and water supplies are usually carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in a tender coupled to it. Variations in this general design include electrically-powered boilers, turbines in place of pistons, and using steam generated externally. Steam locomotives were first developed in the United Kingdom during the early 19th century and used for railway transport until the middle of the 20th century. Richard Trevithick ...
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NZR Ab Class
The NZR AB class was a class of 4-6-2 Pacific tender steam locomotive that operated on New Zealand's national railway system for New Zealand Railways (NZR). Originally an improvement on the 1906 A class, 141 were built between 1915 and 1927 by NZR's Addington Workshops, A & G Price of Thames, New Zealand, and North British Locomotive Company, making the AB class the largest class of steam locomotives ever to run in New Zealand. An additional eleven were rebuilt from the tank version of the AB – the WAB class – between 1947 and 1957. Two North British-made locomotives were lost in the wreck of the ''SS Wiltshire'' in May 1922. Construction and design The genesis of the AB class originated from the construction of A class 4-6-2 No. 409 at Addington Railway Workshops in 1906. A two-cylinder simple-expansion locomotive, 409 was initially classified AB to differentiate it from the four-cylinder compound A and AD class locomotives, which were by and large of a similar design ...
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World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ...
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North Island Main Trunk Railway
The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and serves the large cities of Palmerston North and Hamilton. Most of the NIMT is single track with frequent passing loops, but has double track - * between Wellington and Waikanae, except for of single-track through tunnels between North Junction ( from Wellington) and South Junction, ( from Wellington), on the Pukerua Bay to Paekakariki section, * between Hamilton and Te Kauwhata (except for the single-track Waikato River Bridge at Ngāruawāhia), and * between Meremere and Auckland Britomart. Around (approximately 65%) of the line is electrified in three separate sections: one section at 1600 V DC between Wellington and Waikanae, and two sections at 25 kV AC: between Palmerston North and Te Rapa (Hamilton) and between Papakura and Au ...
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