Below are a few shots from the shoe box taken around the port in the early 90's, most taken while I was living in NP at boarding school.
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Overview of the port yard, early 90's.
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Former UC tank wagon converted into a bitumen container to ride on IA type wagons.
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More converted old UC tank wagons.
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TBB and TCC containers, and VRB's full of butter and cheese from Whareroa getting unloaded on the wharf.
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More of the former UC tank wagons in the siding where they were loaded.
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A UBC cement wagon stored at the port. The blue paint around its number means its written off and waiting for scrapping.
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Straight from Whareroa this train ran directly to the port, seen here passing Moturoa coolstores. April 1993
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Down in the port yard about to run around its train.
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and then push the wagons onto the wharf!
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Then brand new the DXR was specially arranged to be part of a shuttle train to convey passengers from New Plymouth to the port for their open day. 1993 or 1994.
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The Westgate port open day train seen just west of the site of the old station platform down town.
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DC4133 was on the other end of the train operating push pull type. DC 4853 was there at the start of the day, but was incorrectly set up and dragged all the way down to the port, and had to be towed back to Smart Road with extreme wheel flats. Oops! Seen here near Belt Road.
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The port open day was a grand affair with many displays and demonstrations. New Zealand Rail sent several of the latest and greatest of their wagons for display, including VRB, VS, and this ZBV.
 
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7239 running as 528 (light loco) sitting at the Stratford platform while waiting for 521 to arrive from New Plymouth. DC 4012 was used on 52 shunt during the day and will catch a ride back to Palmy on 521.
 
I went digging through my photos and found a bunch of old gems, both of the fert works in New Plymouth, the port and the ones below showing some of tonnages we used to move out of Palmer Road, to supplement the ones in my Sunday Waffles post.
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52 shunt pulling away from Te Roti junction on the Kapuni branch with a long rake of empty urea containers bound for Petrochem at Palmer Road.
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Standing on Palmer Road looking east as the shunt approaches. The siding on the right is the loop for the LPG siding (behind the fence extreme right).
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At the end of the branch, the shunt will run around the containers in the Kapuni yard and take them back to Palmer road to push them into the sidings. This move was necessary when the "loop" in the Petrochem siding was full and there was no room to work the sidings with the loco on the west end of the rake. The P+O containers behind the loco have been pushed out of the Lactose siding by their little Price.
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The little Price built chain driven shunter of the Lactose company pushes a UK wagon out of their siding and onto the shunt.
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The Price had no buffer in the back end as their siding was a single dead end track, and they would pull the empty wagon into their siding and load it, then push it out and get the next one. This loco is now at Paihiatua.
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Some days the Petrochem tonnage was so great two DC's were needed to get it all back to Stratford.
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And another shot of those fine looking ZG's at Palmer Road.
I have got a bunch more photos of the port, and of the various locos that have worked at the fert siding in New Plymouth over the years sitting in the draw, which I hope to scan soon..... best to strike while the irons hot, on a roll and all that :-)

AH
 
WHAT!!!?? Three posts in one week... unheard of!! Carefull son, you may burst something!

528 was cancelled again yesterday and I duly arrived at Smart Road in good time, so rather than sit in the office twiddling my thumbs waiting for my train to be made up, I jumped on the shunt and went for a ride with them down to the port. The wagons they were retrieving were for my train so why not eh?

I must admit I was a bit like a kid in a candy store! I have not been down to the port in a very long time and it was a real thrill to see it all again. Pre 911 one could wander willy nilly through most of the port, around most of the wharf area and "round the back" on the seaward side of the power station. The place was chocka full of interesting things to see, including large numbers of seals. There was also some very very old parts and you could see old railway tracks beside an old rubbish furnace on what looked like an equally old former jetty / wharf thing.

We used to camp regularly at Belt Road motor camp, and if I wasnt wandering around the Morely street loco depot, I could be found wandering around the port. Heavy industry has always fascinated me, and to see so much of it in the form of trains, ships, cranes, trucks, power station and all the other things found at a port was just heaven for a young lad. During my time at boarding school in New Plymouth I would bike down to the port after school  to escape the rigors of calculus, geometry and shakespear. There was nothing like sitting on the breakwater ackmons absorbing the sounds and smells of the ocean pounding the land, the industrial noise of a busy port and if I were lucky, a train shunting the yard.

Sadly in these high security terrorist times, the port is now ringed by a big arse security fence, with all areas off limits to the public, just in case someone slips a bomb into a container that may end up in the USA....

So back to my ride.. we ran down to the siding at Moturoa coolstores light engine, pulled some wagons out, and down into the port yard to run around them, before heading back to Smart Road. Like I said, I was quite excited about the excursion which is off the normal beaten path for me, so my OCD kicked in and I snapped a bunch of photos...
 
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The second man watches the line intently as we head to the port.
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The weather was crap - Lord knows why I didnt do this on monday when it was sunny...
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Looking back to the wagons we will pick up.
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Having entered the siding from the port end we wander back to get the wagons.
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The containers are loaded on the ground by the coolstores and then lifted up onto the wagons here via swing lifter.
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The rake is checked and inspected before pulling...
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And then we head out to the port. The old sidings at the coolstores can be seen, left over from the days when they used to load the containers on wagons here.
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We drop down into the port yard. There is a big automated gate that crosses the line here, opened by port security staff. The power station chimney rises into the clouds in the distance.
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Down in the port yard. The track curving away to the right leads to Blyde Wharf where they load and unload containers. The rest of the yard is just used for storage / running around.
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Concrete silos in the background were once served by UBC wagons here. The black tanks in foreground are old UC tank wagons converted into inter-modal bitumen containers. We used to rail these to Greymouth and Penrose...
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DSC 2530 in the early 90's shunting Blyde Wharf.
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The track leading off into the distance once lead to the urea unloading facility. CAU wagons full of urea were pushed up into the building and discharged into a big hopper that would feed conveyors to load ships. The area is now all log storage (none by rail!!) and I believe the old urea store has been flattened to make way for coal storage bought up the coast by barge.
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DSC 2257 pulling wagons out of the urea store in the early 90's. The green and black crane looking thing in the background was used to load ships.
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Did I mention it had been raining??
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having bought the wagons into the yard, we run around the rake, our RCO trying to stay anonymous! :)
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Another test of the brakes and we are off...
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Crawling up the hill searching for a good spot to find radio coverage to get a light....
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"Clear proceed" (or "green up" in the old money) and we head back to smart road.
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Coursing along the coast downtown New Plymouth. The pole center frame is the "wind wand". I really shoulda done this on a sunny day.
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Back at smart road, my power for 529 on the right.
All in all a sweet wee trip and a neat blat down memory lane...

AH
 
My up train was cancelled on monday afternoon, so I got to take the Rolls through to Smart Road instead. As I was super early and had a couple of hours to kill, I went for a wander around the yard to see what I could find. Turns out the place was crawling with DSC's, so a few shots were taken for posterity.
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2556 was towed up on 526, and will replace 2338 at the fert siding.
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Whareroa's regular DSC 2624 has spent the winter hiding in New Plymouth on gantry duty.
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Poor old 2257, owned by Ravensdown, went pop at least 6 or more years ago, and has not turned a wheel since.
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VRB's in storage, unlikely to see active service again.
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Two gas tanks sit on an IAB under the water sluice in the new transfer siding.
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Another view of the sluice, the cage on the right being where the trucks park while transferring LPG to wagons.
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DSC 2338 catches the late afternoon sun at the fert works.
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Ex 520 that morning, 7241 and 5108 will be the power for my 529.
528 has been cancelled again today, so there will be another drive to New Plymouth today.

AH
 
I have spent the last week on early shift, running 520 through to New Plymouth, returning to Stratford by car and then running 52 shunt when required.
Its been a quiet week operationally and the weather has been rubbish but Friday pleasantly dawned a blue dome day, and also turned out to be the one and only day during the week we would head out on the Kapuni branch. We took an IA wagon with a single  GSM container out to Balance for loading with palletised bags of urea.

Arriving at the Balance siding on the west side of Palmer Road, we found a truck sitting on the scales and we had to wait patiently for it to move before we could enter the siding. Leaving the IA wagon on the scales we ran around it via the track next door and then pushed it up to the loading dock, where it was promptly loaded via two forklifts.
This siding used to be extremely busy "back in the day". Not only were the CAU wagons and top loading urea containers loaded here, but also many ZG, ZH, ZA and ZP could be done in a day too, sometimes necessitating 3 or 4 runs back to Stratford to cope with all the tonnage.

Sadly these days we are lucky to see one wagon a week out here, Balance bitten hard and treated badly by former dictatorships of previous railway management and now very shy of using rail services. Trucks rule the roost here, and its not uncommon to see 10 lined up waiting to be weighed and loaded....

Below are some photos from years past showing life on the branch as it used to be, and the potential for future growth out here. I believe with the right attitudes and the right person leading the way, customers such as Ballance could return to rail and we could grow once again....
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52 shunt heading to Palmer Rd with some GSX containers.
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Fert container at Stratford.
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New ZG at Palmer Road. Note the PetroChem branding - pre Balance.
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New ZG's at Stratford.
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CAU wagon at Stratford.
I have got some more photos somewhere, but as usual, I cant find them when I want them...... I will add them to this post when I get a chance to dig them out.

Below are a couple of snaps taken over the week. 

There is now only 7 days until the new milk season roster kicks in, and I am told we will be hauling milk again before the end of the month. Add in some roster alterations and changes to our runs and there should well be some far better photos opportunities this season.

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Power for 537 sitting at Whareroa.
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Smart Road. The DC will rrun 521 and the DFT will go 529. Both locos came in on 520.
The weather has turned to poos again today, so I might get some more piccys online this arvo.

AH
 
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Sorry, but due to budget constraints the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off indefinitely...
Its winter! 

As the work load in our little corner of the railway world is seasonal, when winter comes along we generally dont have much to do. Our rostered work shrinks dramatically and generally if its not nightshift running 529 down to Bunnythorpe to get 520, its either an early start taking 520 from Whareroa to New Plymouth and then running 52 shunt, or its an afternoon shift running 528 to NP and bringing 529 back....

I must admit the inner foamer in me has all but dissapeared. I dont know if its just the slow sleepy winter pace or my growing displeasure with my employers ravenous and savage cost cutting frugality and overall negative outlook whilst being strangled from above by extremely short sighted politicians. Its hard to remain positive when they are making gangers redundant, cancelling contracts and retrenching all areas. Apparently we will be dumped into an SOE next year that will no doubt be offloaded by the Nats in an effort to "recover the cost burden bought about by the previous government."

*sigh*

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Train wins!
As some of you may know, I popped my level crossing cherry last month in dramatic fashion. I guess it was always going to happen, and even though the possibility of it happening has always sat in the back of mind, I was in no way prepared for it in any way..... one moment its buisness as usual and then BOOM there is a 4wd flying through the air in front of my train! 
I wont linger on it, or go into the details here, as I have moved on, the whole situation at the time and days following chalked up to "character building" and being one of life's more intense experiences. 
And now to the foaming.....

As I alluded before, its winter, there is not a great deal to report, and I spend most of time running trains in the dark, all of which lessens the chances of taking train photos. That said, there are a few recent snaps below.
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4438 at dawn, New Plymouth.
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526 pulling in on the loop at Stratford.
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Hutt fresh 7036 at Whareroa.
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And again at Stratford.
What happened to "The Archive" I hear you say? Well.... I just dont have the enthusiasm for it, and even though its winter, dare I say it the weather has not been too bad and I have been busy with the family doing other things. 

Things will start picking up again soon and perhaps getting back into the swing of things will lift spirits and gain a few more photos....

Until next time..

AH
 
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2257 at New Plymouth mid 90's
You may have noticed a new set of menus in the menu bar called The Archive.
It is within these pages that I plan to share my collection of railway images. Its going to be a big project, and will probably take quite some time.

I plan to have thumbnail images linked to full sized scans / originals.

The images will be free for all to use in any way they like, as long as I get 10% of any profit made :-) 

 
My how time flies huh!? I see its been 4 weeks since my last post, so I thought its about time I put a bit of effort into updating Steel Ribbons. 
( The weather is crap and I am home alone this morning so what better excuse do I need eh? )

SO where to start.....

I guess the biggest recent event in my little world of trains has been the derailment at Maewa last week. 
A wagon derailed on the curves to the north of Maewa, rattled along the sleepers for a while and then went postal on the north end set of points at the Maewa loop, destroying them and taking 5 other wagons with it.
The above photo has been "borrowed" from a friend, showing some of the UK wagons that were sent bush during the derailment. 
The subsequent damage caused to the track, saw the NIMT closed for almost 2 days while the debris was cleared and repairs to the track could be made. Around 600m of track was almost totaled and the time needed to repair the damage to get trains running was clear by the time it took to reopen the mainline.

The derailment happened on a Tuesday night and before long trains were stacked up everywhere and security companys in the upper Manawatu were rubbing their hands with glee at all the extra work they had just picked up guarding abandoned trains up and down the trunk.

Trains 521, 529 and 523 ended up parked beside each other at Marton. Tonnage in the Naki had built up over the following day, so the call was made to send a pair of locos (4191 and 5114) from Marton back to New Plymouth light to run another service south into the parking lot. I was called out to run the locos from Whareroa to New Plymouth, and then return to Whareroa running as 529.
When the locos finally showed up at Whareroa, the south facing loco (dxb5114) had flat batteries so we had to bust out the jumper leads and jumpstart the old girl from the DC. Now I have to admit, jump starting a loco is a nervous process at best of times, let alone at dusk with a stone cold dx. Several attempts were made before we got 5114 running on its own, but another 40 minutes had passed, and darkness was apon us. 
I ran the locos straight through to New Plymouth, and straight into the fuel bay to refill the locos, and then onto the tonnage for my train. A quick brake test later, and I was on my south. Shunting Stratford and Eltham on the way down, 529 had grown to a full load for DX+DC combo by the time it had got to Whareroa.
The following day I was booked up to run 547. Everything was running extremely late, train running was a mess and by the time I was ready to leave Whareroa 545 was only 30 minutes in front of me!
It occured to me that may well be a mess down the line, and a quick glance at the big brother screen earlier had shown several trains in Marton / Palmy area. In no rush, and with 545 in front of me, I just puddled my way down to Wanganui. During the whole journey the train cotnrol radio had been alive with chatter as the poor TCO on duty tried valiantly to keep trains running.
With Maewa loop out of action and a lengthy 10km/h speed restriction over the derailment damaged section, trains were at a standstill everywhere. When I arrived at Marton I found a super huge 225 sitting on the East Main (with two DL's on the front) waiting for its turn to head south. Also at Marton in the east sidings was a lot of trunk tonnage that had been abandond there some time in the last two days. 

One station down at Greatford, 545 was waiting in the loop, and had been for some time. And further along at the next crossing loop, the Wanganui shunt was stabled in the loop there waiting to return to Palmerston North. Train 220 was trying its hardest to come north through all of that, but was massive, and having issues with the its electric locos. 
Once 220 finally arrived at Marton, 225 was given the go, and everybody shuffled down one stop. 561 (wanganui shunt) was sent into the Rangitawa - Maewa section, 545 headed for Rangitawa and 225 puddled down to Greatford. After an apparent eon, I finally got green lights and got bumped one stop down to the now vacant Greatford main line to wait for a northbound 546 loaded milk train, which had been crossed 545 at Feilding. 
To add to the chaos, the reliefe driver for 225 was not DL certified and went back to Palmy in the car, one of the other trunk trains was too big to fit into the loop at Feilding, and some shuffling had to be done, and train 528 (was behind 220) had loco issues, was put into Bunnythorpe loop behind 546, crapped out and was sent back to Palmy where it was promptly cancelled!!
So I after another 40 odd minutes at Greatford, 546 comes and goes, and I get down to Rangitawa for a wee while and then through to Feilding over the derailment site... and what a mess! There is a big hole in the ground where the north end of the Maewa loop used to be!!!
At Feilding I am put in the hole to wait for 210, which is stopped down by Bunnythorpe after reports of sparks coming from one of its wagons. More delays. 220's driver walks his train but finds no defects, returns to the cab and the train rolled past me no worries either. By this time 521 had come down from Marton and was tucked into the loop behind my 547.
Finally away from Feilding I cross a pair of light locos at Bunnythorpe on their way to Marton to retrieve the tonnage in the sidings there. 
Rolling down the arrival at Palmy I have to wait for the yard shunt to clear a spot for me to come into the yard (which is chokka block!) and it takes a further 30 minutes to pick my way through the yard and get into loco.
In total it took 7 hours and 20 minutes to run from Whareroa to Palmy - a run that usually takes just under 4. 
 

A few days eariler, I had the esteemed pleasure of escorting Tr 914 on my train from Marton to Whareroa - at 40km/h the whole way!! Wow what a slow trip that was.
914 is replacing Tr 908 at Eltham, which is in turn headed to Wellington for a rebuild and repaint.
Other than that, everything has been sorta run-of-the-mill in our wee corner of the network. 
Milk train 540 still continues to run every day, bolstered by the extra milk as a result of the closed Manawatu Gorge road, and milk plant shut down at Longburn.
I have had a few runs to New Plymouth and few more down to Palmy and back (547 down for 548 home) which has seen me cover a fair few rail miles in a short time....
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547 at Marton.... waiting.....
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And another train waits...........

I have recently rediscovered the joy of fishing, and found a really nice spot to fish at the Patea beach on the shores of the river. Apart from being an isolated little oasis on an otherwise rugged Taranaki coastline, its also a great spot to see trains go past.
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Here fish!!
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547 seen from the shores of the Patea river whilst fishing, the DSJ heading south for servicing.
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The "loaner"... filling in while 2624 and 4045 are away.

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A quick jump to Chile... Photo stolen from RP.Net
If you have got a few spare minutes, I highly reccomend you watch this video, in fullscreen, high definition, with the sound turned up LOUD!!

Following the Maewa chaos, one of my 547 runs had 6 locos on it! Almost felt like a REAL train LOL...
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Another South Island visitor on holiday in the north.

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Bridge 41 over the Patea river getting a much needed repaint.
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528 at Patea following change over.
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Just cant resist a decent roster shot lol..
And I am spent.... lol..

Untill next time.

AH
 
Sorry I dont have much in the way of news or stimulating stories just now, but I have snapped a piccys around the place. 
The last of the milk season is in its death throes and things are starting to slow down a bit around the place. We have a new roster starting soon without any hint of milk trains so its safe to say we will firmly be entrenched in winter mode before long.

Some piccys below.

AH
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5500 on the front of 526 early one morning last week at Marton.
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More South Island muscle visiting.
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From the archives. 5264 in early 90's shunting Hawera.
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5264 at Westfeild, mid 90's Not my photo.
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5264 shunting Hawera, fresh out of Hutt after rebranding.
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543 at Wanganui.
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EU shunters wagon at Wanganui.
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FE (blue cradles) USL and UKN (black cradles) log wagons at East Town.
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Loading logs at Aramaho.
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Quick shimmy up a pole at Ruatangata.
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New coolstore taking shape at Whareroa.
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526 approaching Te Roti.