Pictures From The Past

This month's pictures from the past come from the extensive collection of railway photographs taken by Bob Hepburn.

AA and WA locomotives are seen hauling the goods train out of Waikokopu.

One of the major construction jobs on the new line was the Kopuawhara viaduct, 25 miles south of Gisborne. Five hundred and thirty feet long, and 130 feet high, the viaduct has a central arch span of 180 feet. It was built of concrete because of the wartime shortage of steel. The viaduct is situated between two tunnels so that passengers get but a brief glimpse of it.

Bob Hepburn says that tunnel No.19 (the Tikiwhata) on this section of the line is the third longest tunnel in the British Commonwealth (after the Rimutaka and Otira tunnels). Tikiwhata is 1 mile, 68 chains, 60 links long.