New Zealand - A Class D engine on the Kawakawa section in the Bay of Islands - Courtesy NZRLS #603332 New Zealand Railway - Rail transport in New Zealand is an integral part of New Zealand's transport network, with a nationwide network of 4,128 km of track linking most major cities in the North and South Islands, connected by inter-island rail and road ferries. Rail transport in New Zealand has a particular focus on bulk freight exports and imports, with 18 million net tonnes moved by rail annually, with 99.5% of New Zealand's exports and imports being transported through the country's seaports. - Rail transport played an important role in the opening up and development of the hinterland outside of New Zealand's predominantly dispersed and coastal settlements. Starting with the Ferrymead Railway in 1863, most public railway lines were short, built by provincial governments and connected major centres to their nearest seaport (such as Christchurch and its port at Lyttelton Harbour). However, from the 1870s, focus shifted to building a nationwide network linking major centres, especially during the Vogel Era of railway construction following the abolition of the provinces. Narrow gauge of 3ft 6in (1,067mm) was adopted nationally. Railways became centrally controlled as a government department under the names New Zealand Government Railways or New Zealand Railways Department (NZR), and land transport was heavily regulated from 1931 onwards. NZR eventually expanded into other transport modes, especially with the Railways Road Services, inter-island ferries and Rail Air service. NZR also had an extensive network of workshops. By 1981, NZR employed 22,000 staff. (source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_New_Zealand) Footplate - This is the saga of steam and steel in a new country. It begins in 1863, when New Zealand's tiny scattered settlements lay weeks apart in terms of travel time and when, fortunately, the arts of railway making were beginning to bear good fruit. - The young country's irregular surface posed tricky problems for surveyors, engineers and the men who designed and drove the locomotives. But the boundless confidence and enthusiasm of the visionary premier Julius Vogel inspired the work; and by the end of Victoria's reign New Zealand's railways were approaching the zenith of their development. - This book tells the story. It is not a formal history but a series of sketches and impressions of the trunks and branch lines, the tracks, the bridges and tunnels, the locomotives and their rolling stock and, above all, of the men of the footplate in that golden age of the grand steam railways. - This book was in its production stages when the author died in October 1977. Gordon Troup, doyen of New Zealand's railway writers, was born in the 19th century and grew up to know and to love his subject. He worked thousands of kilometres on the footplate in his native country and in France. The old drivers and firemen were his lifelong friends. He was no main-trunk snob - he warmed as joyfully to the traction-engines and the little bush-tramway locomotives as he paid homage to the behemoth engines of the main line expresses. - In the book we ride with him in the cab, up and down and across all New Zealand, sharing the tribulations and the triumphs of driver and fireman, straining painfully up grim gradients and around awkward curves with overloaded trains, rollicking down the grades to the flats where straight and level running encourages engine and crew to prove their mettle .... - The illustrations selected by the author run obligato to his text, and will bring pangs of nostalgia to all who, like Mr Troup himself, see the steam-age railways as the symbol of New Zealand's rise to nationhood. - Author: Troup, Gordon - ISBN: 0589010964 Click the link provided at the top to purchase the book through the MAD on New Zealand Shop - Supporting New Zealand Authors and Artists