What 3rd world country threw away their trains

[MikeyG]

All this while a huge convoy of cars with a single person in each flood in and out of the city each day

EddieB's post is exactly why I drive or ride instead of taking the train. If they had decent rolling stock, ran frequently enough and were cheaper than driving I would take the train.

[Bass]

I remember going down from Auckland to Wellington as a lad, down on the Night Limited, back on the Express.

I did Invercargill to Blenheim a couple of times about 40 years ago. The leg to Chch was an overnight limited. I think that "limited" meant that it was limited to a maximum of 10 miles between stops.
On one of these trips, the loco's air brakes failed and we waited about an hour at Dunsandel while another loco was sent down from Chch. We only had about 5 carriages and now we had 2 locos (JA's - the largest hand fired loco in the world at the time) and were an hour late.
How that train stayed on the tracks between Dunsandel and Chch still escapes me - it was one wild ride!!!

[Bass]

Since we are reminiscing about training experiences, my father once told me a story (probably meaning significant BS content) about a ride he had from Burnham to Wigram.
Seems he was stationed at Wigram awaiting demob post WW2 and was on the turps down at Burnham army camp with 2 mates. Lost track of time and at about 10.30 pm realised that they had to be back on base by midnight or would be listed as AWOL.
PANIC!!
Jog over to railway station to explore options and discover one of the early railcars there with a mechanic from the Addington workshops, trying to get the thing to run right. Said mechanic is heading back to Addington and is happy to give a lift and drop them at Wigram.
So, 4 in the driving cab, no-one else on board and mechanic absolutely caning it as he is still trying some diesel de-bugging. Apparently the ride was really scary cos the track was far from even and the driving cab being in front of the wheels meant that it tended to overshoot the curves before tracking back.
After about 10 minutes of this, the mechanic leaves the driving seat and disappears back down the unit, leaving the other 3 crapping themselves and wondering what the hell was going on. After about 5 minutes the noise level increases significantly and the railcar gains another 10 mph !!!
Shortly afterwards the mechanic reappears with a smile and some comment about "thought we had a cylinder missing".
They were real pleased to get off at Wigram apparently.

[scracha]

I find it quite entertaining at the Auckland airport

I find it quite entertaining that people have to drive or take the bus to Auckland airport.

[Coyote]

EddieB's post is exactly why I drive or ride instead of taking the train. If they had decent rolling stock, ran frequently enough and were cheaper than driving I would take the train.

Yeah, I understand that and I wasn't really saying everyone is bad. I just don't understand why they can't put more effort and money into public transport to alleviate these problems and stop so many cars sitting in traffic puffing out shit.

No wait, I do. It's cause public transport is being run purely for profit

[Ixion]

Limited on NZR meant that it had a limited number of stops (few). Between the Express (no stops) and the Night Mail (stopped at every station).

And yeah, standing on the open platform between the carriages was real cool. Cos the couplings were just under your feet and as the train accelerated or braked they clanked and jerked like mad. So you could stand with one foot on either side of the platform (ie one foot on the platform of the fore carriage, and one foot one the platform of the hinder carriage) and get a real bucking bronco ride. Then you and some other kids (all the kids naturally gravitated to the platforms) could egg each other to do that standing on the railing around the platforms. Then some kid would dare someone to climb up onto the roof (I never saw anyone actually do it , but a few climbed some way up). At about that point the guard would usually catch y' and everybody would get a thick ear (y' could easily run away, cos of it being a train!). They packed a mean wallop those trains guards, too.

Kids nowdays have no fun at all.

[NordieBoy]

I find it quite entertaining at the Auckland airport arrivals area. Under the escalator there is an enclosed glass room for those who wish to suck on a cancer stick. It appears a little like a goldfish bowl!
I have not fathomed why a person needs to smoke inside that room, since all the air appears heavily laced with nicotine. Just breathing would be enough to do the trick!

That was weird in South Africa seeing those rooms in restaurants.

[ManDownUnder]

Who threw their trains out?

I believe the answer might be Auckland when they downgraded...