While in Pukekohe on 6 November, I took some shots of the Pukekohe Train Station with my friend, Bill Ellis.
Old and new are in juxtaposition here, at one end of Auckland's suburban line.
The present-day train sets wait for the new week behind high fences and beneath security lights. For when they can clatter up and down between the stations once again.
While beside them, the old pedestrian access remains. Bitumened and reclad to stop slipping in the wet, but still there.
According to Auckland Trains, the station building itself dates from 1913. Back in the 1860s, the Auckland Provincial dreamed of making it all the way down to Drury, but never got past Newmarket with their rail scheme. It took Vogel, and the imported Brogden, to see the dream become reality. They saw the rail first come through the district around 1874.
Sean Millar, in his Passenger Railway Stations of Auckland's Southern Line, remarks on Pukekohe's "unusual western awning" (right side of photo). I've seen the same awning style in Whangarei.
Apparently, there are plans to move the station building westward. I hope they treat it kindly -- but I do like the timber platforms. So much more atmospheric than concrete.
Third pic down, in between the friendly looking looking train fronts (they look like they are smiling), that would be a maintenance vehicle of some kind?
ReplyDeleteNo, that's Kiwirail DC 4346 with passenger cars. They use that kind of engine as well as the other ones for the suburban passenger routes.
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