a good friend of mine, blair, drives locos for kiwirail. last weekend, he txt and asked if i wanted and was able to come for a cab ride on the 4th. i told him i would have a think and let him know, as i would have to juggle work around it.

i finally came up with a workable idea, which saw me at work 8pm saturday doing half of the work. i was back at 7 on sunday morning to finish up, getting done just before 10. i had to be at blairs by 11, and got there with 5min to spare.

more photos here: http://sunstomyandfriends.weebly.com/cab-ride-with-blair-dec-2016.html

no photos of the engines in the yard, as they were out of sight and i wasnt allowed to stop once walking across the yard.

our train: locos DXB5051 and DL9348. the DL was the back engine and did all the work for much of the trip. we rode in the DXB, which was in idle until hitting the westmere bank, the second steepest grade in the country. we were hauling 10 milk tankers to the plant at whareroa [fa-e-ro-a], approx 700tonnes.

going through one of 3 tunnels. the blurry colors are the signals.

an old goods shed

we nearly collected several birds, including a hawk, doves and a number of phesants, including the one hiding in this photo

stopped at eastown yard, about 10mins from home. blair had to get a physical track warrent to continue north, so we were able to get out and talk to friends and family that showed up.

going over the railway bridge in my town. i used to bike to school over this, in the hopes of catching a train thundering over. the westmere bank is maybe 5min north of this point

new concrete sleepers and rails ready for track work. blair dropped these off with the worktrain a few weeks ago. another friend, hamish, does this work as a ganger.

one of the doves we nearly flattened, on another bridge furthur north

backing into the siding at the plant. we were held at a stopboard for 15min as we were massively early and no one was ready to allow us in. i tried to get the tankers, but the track curved before i got the camera ready and i missed it.

we left the locos there and came home in a rental car.

all in all, it was a great day out, and the first cab ride i have had in a diesel. even better it was the DXB, a much gruntier and more interesting engine than the DL.