Northerner

Northerner welcome aboard leaflet 1984

Northerner welcome aboard leaflet 1984

The Northerner was the last of the third generation of New Zealand long-distance passenger trains that commenced with the Blue Streak and were followed by the Southerner, Silverstar, Endeavour and Silverfern, as it was designed to replace the last of the Night Limited overnight trains between Wellington and Auckland, as the "stopping" service. Whilst the Silverstar was the premium, limited stop service, all-sleeper, air conditioned designed for business travellers and those wanting luxury travel, the Northerner was the service for the average member of the public. It stopped at the smaller towns, it had a mix of seated and sleeper accommodation, and like the Southerner and Endeavour, was simply a set of refurbished 1937-1945 era 56ft carriages (with the added bonus/disbenefit of steam-heating, which was notorious for often either not-working or working too hard). Unlike the Southerner and the Endeavour, which retrofitted a 56ft carriage for buffet cars, it used the former travelling post-office cars as buffet cars, which were much more modern (having been manufactured in the early 1960s) originally designed so Post Office staff could sort the mail on overnight train services.  With this operation discontinuing in the late 1960s they became surplus and enabled much higher capacity (40 rather than 20) seated buffet cars for the Northerner, with more elaborate galleys.

So the Northerner was the third of the Wellington-Auckland main trunk train services, and of the two overnight ones, lasted by far the longest. It was for many years a reasonable success. Like the Southerner, its seating cars (confusingly called Day Cars) were ex. First Class 56ft coaches, refurbished, with the same 2-1 configuration with deeply reclining vinyl clad seats. Personal overhead lights were added so passengers might be able to read on the overnight service. Of course they only carried 30 people each, so were heavy carriages for not many people.  The better way to travel was in the sleepers, which were refurbished 56ft coach sleepers. All two berth, containing a washbasin and mirror, with bedding. However, toilets were at the end of each coach, so if you needed to get up in the night for ablutions, it wasn't ideal. Each sleeper had a steward whose job was mainly to convert your bench seat into a berth, and fold down the upper berth, and in the morning bring a cup of tea or coffee with biscuits to the cabin.  Two stewards per train was quite a level of staffing. Each sleeper had eight cabins, with two berths each. You could book a single berth, but you'd be sharing it with a stranger. I travelled on it once, with my Dad, which I found a great thrill (my first overnight train), with great memories of having a sausage roll as the train passed through Paekakariki, sleeping in the lower bunk, poking my nose out the curtain to look at night at the passing lights, but also how noisy the train was with a window open.

Notably cabins couldn't be locked from the outside, so if you went to the buffet car, you'd want to take anything valuable with you!

Like the Southerner, after 1981 NZR reduced the full meal service in the buffet car to "cafeteria style fare" as demonstrated in this leaflet, with alcohol up till 10.15pm.  Continental breakfast (cereal, fruit and toast basically) was available in the morning.

Of course as the buffet car might get busy in the evening or first thing in the morning, it spent over half of the journey almost empty, as most passengers would sleep, whilst staff and the heaven buffet car would be hauled through the centre of the North Island.  

Everything changed in 1979 when the Silverstar was withdrawn for the ill-fated refurbishment and conversion that was meant to see it replace the Northerner, as by that time there wasn't enough demand to justify two overnight trains between Wellington and Auckland. The Northerner was more successful, because it essentially offered budget travel options by comfortable seat to multiple smaller towns, whereas few wanted to pay for the more expensive luxury sleepers on the Silverstar.  

By the late 1980s it was made clear that the Silverstar refurbishment would not be funded by the Government (rendered prohibitively expensive by the need to remove the blue asbestos insulation). The Northerner had been receiving direct subsidies since 1982 when NZR was corporatised, and in 1988 in order to get the service to break even the sleepers were removed (as the fares required to make sleepers pay as much as seated cars would need to be double the seated fare), and the buffet cars replaced initially with a shop in the guards van, followed by a half counter shop/seated car.   That "second-generation" Northerner operated from around 1991, with higher-density seating (2-2 configuration), and "video" carriages, with a ceiling mounted TV playing movies with sound played through the carriage - an interesting concept for an overnight train service!

Two on-board leaflets give a taste of travel on board. The older one was from my trip with my (late) Dad in 1983 is the original Northerner, giving a taste of the overnight train that connected Wellington with Auckland and places in-between for 12 years. The newer (1984) leaflet was one given to me.

Compared to the Southerner leaflet, the original New Zealand Railways Department logo has been replaced with the stylised "fast" New Zealand Railways Corporation logo in the 1984 leaflet. It's particularly curious to me that the front of the leaflet is a photo of the train passing Mount Ruapehu, which in regular service it would only have ever done at some time between 1 and 3am when it would have been completely dark! 

At this time the service was scheduled to take 13 hours between Wellington and Auckland, with the services scheduled to pass between Ohakune and National Park. Today the only passenger train service between Wellington and Auckland is the daylight Northern Explorer service, a scenic trip predominantly targeted at international tourists.

UPDATED: Added the April 1983 Northerner leaflet, very much reminiscent of the Railways Department era, and was one we used on our trip

Northerner on-board leaflet 1983

Southerner

Southerner welcome on-board leaflet 1982

Southerner welcome on-board leaflet 1982

The long period of depression era austerity for on-board catering was starting to end, which saw nearly 40 years of long-distance passenger trains operating with catering relegated to extended stops at railway stations with cafeteria/restaurant facilities mid-trip. By the late 1960s the Railways Department had finally established that fewer and fewer people were willing to take a train trip that might stop multiple times on the journey just so passengers could join a scrum at the railway station ship to buy whatever food and drink they could get their hands on, before rushing back onto the train.  

So the Southerner was an attempt to turn that around, in parallel with the dieselisation of railways in the South Island, it saw the introduction of a complete buffet car, with a counter-type arrangement, seating passengers on a long-table.  This was supplemented by "stewardess" service in the coaches themselves, notable that passengers in smoking carriages could be served alcohol, but non-smoking not, which is a quaint sign of the times.

For a daylight service from Christchurch to Invercargill via Dunedin (and limited stops so it could operate competitively with road coach services) this made sense. The other notable feature was the end to classes of travel, as first class 56ft coaches manufactured 1937-1945 were refurbished to be the only class of travel. Wide reclining deep cushioned vinyl seats, in a 2-1 configuration with lots of legroom were certainly designed to make it a comfortable trip.

The Southerner was, for many years, a success, although it was noted after a few years that the parallel road coach service (which connected the Southerner to smaller towns) did see a lot its passenger simply ride the coach the whole way, rather than connect to wait for a train, so it lost some of the small town traffic.  However over time it became increasingly clear that the buffet car was heavily loss-making, not least because it saw a lot of weight being hauled around with relatively little additional revenue (although it wasn't always acknowledged that without the buffet car many passengers may have chosen other options).  Furthermore, the capacity of former first class railway carriages was only around 30, despite them being several times heavier than a road coach that could carry 45, this effectively meant that much of heralded fuel efficiency of rail over road was squandered on rolling stock that carried fewer people (plus the buffet car and the guards van/baggage car).  By the time of this leaflet, the Southerner was receiving direct operating subsidies from government. Certainly the old former first class seats were not economically viable (as the fares needed to sell such a low density of seating would be too high), but they attracted passengers because they beat anything available by road.

By 1982, the time of this leaflet (which I received in 1984 as I rode the Southerner for the first time on a family holiday) the buffet car service had been truncated to be cafeteria style light snacks, rather than full meal service, in order to save money. Furthermore, some of the Southerner coaches had been substituted for higher density 56ft carriages (ex. second class) with denser 2-2 seating that did not recline, which were greater capacity, but more akin to travelling by road coach. I ended up in that coach because NZR handily booked the seat for me in the non-smoking coach, but my parents in the smoking coach, at the other end of the train (in the bigger comfortable former first class seats).  

By the time the Southerner was finally cancelled in 2002 it had gone through yet another iteration from the 1990s without a full buffet car, but with a cafeteria/shop to sell food and beverages, and with a denser configuration. It enabled the Southerner to survive the 1990s (when I rode it one further time), but alternatives had attracted too many away from the train by the turn of the century.  Competition in the domestic airline market had significantly reduced airfares so many could afford to fly (especially for the long trip from Christchurch to Invercargill), and competition in the long-distance coach/shuttle market was undercutting the Southerner on price, travel time and frequency of service (attracting many students), plus the ending of protectionism for new imported cars (and ending the ban on secondhand imports) saw the cost of car ownership plummet.  A study conducted by the Government of the day indicated that it was not worth subsidising, in terms of attracting tourists or being able to make it viable, so to this day there is no passenger rail service on most of the Main South Line (or South Island Main Trunk Line as it used to be called) south of Christchurch. 

Purpose of this blog

Welcome to this eclectic blog which contains snippets of New Zealand railway history almost entirely from the 1970s-1990s (with some elements before and after). It comes from my personal archive of material I have obtained since childhood and periodically in my travels since, and my interest in ensuring it is available to anyone with a wider interest in the topic.

It ranges from newspaper clippings, to timetables, leaflets and other items I have collected. With each item, I will write a little about why I think it is of historic significance, or how I got it (if that matters).

It has a focus on Wellington, where I grew up, but the generosity of umpteen people who knew I had this interest in my childhood saw me receive a range of objects that may be of interest.  I apologise in advance for some materials which are undated, as I was too young to realise that this might matter at a later date.

Any feedback is welcome. The order of what I post will depend both on when items are found as I go through boxes of stuff (so there may be no date order to anything), and how busy I am otherwise, so there will be days and weeks between posts from time to time.

I also intend to set up similar blogs for other modes of transport I have an interest in, including aviation, roads, shipping and urban public transport. I also have a small number of items from foreign railways mostly Australia, and will set up a separate blog for those in due course.