Last Trains To Roxburgh and Cromwell, Otago New Zealand

[@sampaddon7311]

Worst decision ever the amount of trucks that wouldn’t have to be on the road if the train still ran

[@QUIXNZ]

Holy toledo..? I'm famous: Check me out: 5:23 -to- 5:31 That was me - standing on the Cromwell turntable (at the very end of the video) looking down at what the "Alexandra based" NZR bridge gang was doing, whilst they were disconnecting the turntable's innards. The shot also "includes" some of my best NZR (OCB4 Track Gang) workmates & friends, such as the Grade 2 Ganger, at the LH Side, with his old felt hat and the "always in his mouth" (roll-Ur-own) smoke, as well as the tall bridge gang's truck driver, and an old ex-green-grocer who started in the OCB4 gang a few years before this event & who turned out to be a rather UNFIT & plump/chubbie "Englishman" - who always talked with an broad UK English Accent and who seemed to be more concerned about HOW he looked (spick-and-span: as in "fresh, brand-new"), rather than as to how HARD (or not) he actually worked. He could easily "go as slow" as a hen picking away at little bits of crushed gravel, when we "all" were shovelling-up the track ballast over the ends of the sleepers, such that whilst the rest of the 17 man gang were doing approximately four (or five) 30ft rail-lengths, whilst he'd do JUST ONE (picking away at litle bits of gravel to "waste time" before moving to the next 30ft section, but one day - we all agreed, to go as fast as we possibly could, and yet .. he still "paced us" at the same rate of "one to four/five" that we could do.. Then we (being several lengths in front of him) "whispered" to each other, to GO as slow as possible to see what he'd do? Sure enough, he realized what we were doing, and so - stubbornly fiddled around with a few feet of ballast - (even getting down on his "knees" to pick-out little stones from the old "Dog-Spike" holes in one sleeper), to keep-up his (SLOW WORK SPEED) "one -to- four/five" ratio. Sadly - that was many years ago - in the long distant past Almost every one of those OLD men (that I worked with) there, has since passed away - as I was in my early to mid 20's on the day the LAST PASSENGER train left Cromwell for the last time (the Grade 2 Ganger lasted just a couple of years after that day, and died before the line officially closed to Middlemarch). It was a bit of a misnamed event though, as there were SEVERAL work trains after that one left - for a few weeks, taking away the mainline.points/switch.gear plus a lot of the associated track-work, along with the turntable bits and the dismantled sections of the (overhead) container "unloading gantry" etc. Yet I remember that day vividly, as if I could simply "drive up there" and see them all again. Sadly - the memory is just that - a distant memory. PLUS - I don't swim and there's several FEET of water (of Lake Dunstan) "above that spot now".

[@kiwihib]

Late 70's worked as Acting Statiomaster at Cromwell and Middlemarch last Stationmaster there, Acting Station Agent at Clyde for a couple of Novembers when Tom Bourke went to Melbourne for the Cup each year plus the job that brought me back down South then Section Officer at Ranfurly great memories which I got to visit in January except of Middlemarch as we went back down through Roxburgh were dad started his Railway career on that branch lovely memories.

[@davidk6264]

i heard the railway reached as far as Cromwell, I didn't really believe it.