Here's that pair of DFs again. I seem to have gotten decent mileage out of this train, here at the ever popular Otaki Bridge
In the early 90s, I used to regularly drive down the Hutt road to check out the loco depot and stumbled upon this classic lineup one weekend morning - EW 1805 (165), Ka 942 and J 1211 (in block-head and cone-head guises respectively). The two steamers look like they are having ferry tiedown hooks added or removed. The EW was stored in the parcels depot near platform 9 and occasionally emerged for a run up the yard to prove it was still alive.
In 1991, the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines produced some spectacular sunsets, and I headed north a few times in an attempt to snap trains with them. This was presumably one of these days, and on the way home I was lucky to catch Ka 945 resting at Paekok and capture this favourite shot.
In more normal, grotty weather, DX 5304 and DC 4041 make up a common loco combo at Forest Lakes
And similarly, 5310 and 4277 do the honours near McKay Crossing. This is another favourite shot from my time in Wellington, marred only by my fuzzily fungal Nikon zoom lens.
DX 5333 and DX 4133 near Otaki on the 10th of March 1991 - a rare case of me remembering to record the date on a slide. This is a pretty soft shot too, but the only one I ever took at this location. I seem to remember blackberry thorns being the prevalent vegetation
DX 5425 and DC 4507 near Manakau
Another DX+DC combo at Tunnel 7 on the Paekok coast
Treble DXs 5500+5097+5304 at Paekok in 1990
DFT 7010 and DX 66 (aka DX 5166) from the Paekok hill in about 1995. About this time, many DXs had rusty long hood panels under their dynamic brakes replaced, some were repainted with slightly differently sized and styled numbers, whereas some ran around for a while without any numbers on these two panels such as here. For some reason I did record that this was the 10:30am-train ex Wellington. Obviously far more important than recording the date!
On the same day at Forest Lakes, DX 66 reveals her true identity.
I had a bit of a crush on DXR 8007 it would seem. Here in the company of DC 4202 in the Ngauranga Gorge
And here at Tunnel 7. I remember being quite disappointed after perching up here for a while that this train was held back for one of the passenger trains and didn't get moving until the sun had set
On the 7th of April 1991, I got a copy of the loco allocations and it looked like there would be a four loco train out of Wellington, so I roped Keith Archibald in for the chase. The locos were changed at the last minute, but we were lucky enough to get DXs 5039, 5195, 5431 and DC 4035 in beaut weather for the most part as we followed it up to around Ohau. On the way back we caught the second train in the dark with three DCs and a DX.
Near Te Horo, 5166, 5137 and 5264 approach Te Horo. I chopped the bottom off this one as there was a pesky bus in the way.
A few more shots of the DXR on the Capital Connection . Here here approaching Paekakariki...
...and at the Waikanae Bridge
Mid train helpers! DC 4041 and DX 5039 assist a preceding train which had a loco failure into Wellington
At Gracefield, DBR 1267 and DF 6277 (on its way to the workshops) on Q4 shunt
A nice fruit salad lineup at Wellyloco, with DCs 4179 and 4225, plus DBR 1267. 4179 displays the small square diagonally striped Palmerston North depot 'sticker' on the sill under the cab. Soon Auckland followed suit with its blue stenciled yachts on the cab side, while Wellington and Te Rapa had more elaborate yellow computer printed stickers. Wouldn't have minded one of the Wellington stickers for my car in a geeky kind of way.
DC 4421, DX 5039, DFT 7008 and DC4571 make up a rare quad-header near Waikanae as the sun goes down on (perhaps) the 6th of Feb 1994. Auckland seemed to regularly run weekend trains with streams of locos for loco-balancing purposes, but in Wellington, we had to make to with triples when we could get them.
A southbound freight between Paekok coast tunnels in Feb 2001
Another favourite, if not pin-sharp shot above Tunnel 7 with DC 4202 and DX 5022 in charge. It seemed more common for the DX to lead on northbound trains, but I preferred the DC with its higher cab and carbody to lead.
After assisting a stalled train up the hill, DX 5074 drops away to a stop at South Junction and will head back to Wellington
DX 5258 and Auckland interloper DF 6185 arrive in Wellington. You might be able to make out the Auckland depot sticker on the DF cabside. Must post a shot of these here.
DXs 5425 and 5258 round Goat Point in (perhaps) Nov 94
DX 5068 and 4231 near Shannon in the mid 90s
Preparing to leave Wellington Yard, DXs 5264 and 5425 were two of three DXs that went 'nude' before they were eventually repainted in blue. This probably stemmed from the replacement of the dynamic brake panels alluded to earlier where they found it too much of a hassle to repaint the numbers (see the smaller '50' on 5068 at Shannon above). DX 5258 in the Goat Point shot above was the third naked DX.
The same train in a beanpole sunset.
DX 5039 and a DC storm towards Waikanae in the sunset.