Napier Express
The Napier Express was a passenger express train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department initially between Napier and Palmerston North and later between Napier and Wellington. It ran from 1891 until 1954.
Introduction
On 13 October 1874, the first section of the
Operation
The Napier Express commenced just after the railway opened to Palmerston North in 1891 and ran once each way daily, typically hauled by a J class steam locomotive. Despite its 'express' name and superiority over mixed services, it was quite slow by modern standards. The southbound service left Napier at 10.45am and the WMR connection arrived in Wellington at 9.50pm. Today the same journey takes less than half the time.
The service was soon to take longer, although the need to change trains was eliminated. On 11 December 1897 the Wairarapa Line reached Woodville, creating a Railways Department line between Wellington and Napier. The Napier Express then was diverted from Palmerston North, running to Wellington via the
In 1908, the WMR was purchased by the government and incorporated into the national network. In 1909 the Napier Express was diverted from the Wairarapa Line, through the Manawatū Gorge to Palmerston North, and then to Wellington over the former WMR track. resulting in a substantial improvement in running time.
On 20 February 1911 when the express was approaching Paekākāriki from the south, a large boulder dislodged from above on the Paekakariki Escarpment rolled down onto a second class carriage, killing Miss Alice Power (23y) from Greymouth who was travelling with two friends.[1][2][3]
By 1914 the travel time was 9 hours 4 minutes with track improvements in 1914 which allowed the speed limit in some places to be raised to 73 km/h and the more powerful
Replacement
The Railways Department had been experimenting with railcars for provincial and rural services since 1912, and in the 1930s they started to become successful. In the 1940s they proved popular on other Hawkes Bay services, and due to their greater efficiency and lower running costs the Railways Department began considering replacing the Napier Express with a railcar service. In 1954, due to a severe shortage of crews, and coal, the Express was withdrawn just days before Christmas, and replaced by an RM class Standard railcar service. The railcars were a considerable improvement over the Express, operating twice daily in each direction and covering the journey in just 5.5 hours. The Standard railcars were augmented and replaced by the new, higher capacity RM 88-seater railcars the following year. Carriage expresses returned to the route in 1972 with the introduction of the Endeavour, which was replaced by the Bay Express in 1989. When the Australian company West Coast Railways took over passenger services in 2002, this was one of the services that was withdrawn before sale.
References
- ^ The Onslow Historian, Volume 13 No 4 1983 p 15
- ^ "Accident to Napier Express: Stone crashes into car". The Hastings Standard in Papers Past (New Zealand). 20 February 1911.
- ^ "Boulder crashes into Napier Express". Manawatu Standard in Papers Past (New Zealand). 20 February 1911.
- ISBN 0-908564-90-2.
Bibliography
- Graham Hutchins. "A Year Before the Quake: The Napier Express, 1930." Last Train to Paradise: Journeys from the Golden Age of New Zealand Railways. Exisle Publishing, Jun 1, 2011