South Island Main Trunk Railway - NZR publicises the route of the Southerner

 

Route of the "Southerner" (1980 leaflet)

New Zealand's First Main Line

Route map Christchurch-Oamaru

Route map Moeraki-Invercargill

South Island Main Trunk Railway.

New Zealand's First Main Line.

Map Christchurch-Oamaru

Map Dunedin-Invercargill

In 1980, the Railways Department published the first leaflet shown above, about what was then called the South Island Main Trunk line (now more usually called the Main South Line), for passengers riding the Southerner. Notwithstanding that the line was clearly one of the less scenic of the main passenger routes, it was see to be worth promoting to encourage patronage on the Southerner.  The most scenic part of the route was from Oamaru to Dunedin.

The stylised image of the passengers on the Southerner on the front cover reflects a different age, with the history of the line being a focus of the first leaflet. The very first trains took a day and half to make the trip although the leaflet notes the first through train service took 14 hours and 40 minutes (from 1904), with service in 1980 taking 10 hours.  The train itself is noted as having "smart roomy cars" with large windows (which is hardly the case), wall to wall carpet, fluorescent lighting and "oil-fired heaters".  Noting the buffet car and the hostess service to help the "elderly and the infirm".  The longest bridge noted is over the Rakaia River, but beyond that a list of bridges is provided and noting all tunnels are between Oamaru and Mosgiel. 

The map and photos of locations in the first leaflet is more detailed than the second one, with depictions of lines to Picton, Lyttelton, Greymouth, Kurow (closed in 1983), Makareao, Cromwell, Bluff, Mossburn and Wairio, as well as numerous stations along the route that the train did not stop at. The second leaflet is much more simplified with only the main line and the stops for the train highlighted. 

By 1983 the Railways Corporation had decided it was preferable to depict an actual train window (with the winding opening mechanism) through to a scene, presumably of the Southern Alps.  The history is largely unaltered from the earlier leaflet, but a picture of what was the then current Southerner train near Dunedin is included, with DJ class locomotive, four passenger cars, a buffet car, baggage/guards van and Fasttrak parcels Z car.  The earlier leaflet only had some drawings of then Christchurch and Dunedin stations, Moeraki boulders and a "Maori chief" (though there is no direct reference to Maori in the leaflet).

Ultimately the Southerner would prove not to be a train with high levels of overseas tourist patronage by the 1990s and NZ Rail did not promote the line as a scenic trip for fairly obvious reasons that most of the line was fairly unremarkable. However, on balance the earlier leaflet is more informative and visually appealing than the second one, although the latter appears to have focused on possible attractions in towns along the way more than the earlier leaflet.