Wairarapa at Ava

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http://youtube.com/watch?v=1vb50Mu8Arc

Back in August we shared a video of the Electric Matangi trains that service the Wellington region. We promised there would be another, and here it is! • The Wairarapa (Why-rah-rap-ah) is a region of New Zealand just to the north/east of Wellington and the Hutt Valley. It was through the Wairarapa that the early New Zealand Government Railway would build its main line north, but the mountain range called the Remutaka Ranges (also the Rimutakas) stood in the way. Until the 1950s this section was always special - the south side was conventional rail, but the north side was a Fell incline. The Fell system used a raised third rail between the two running rails, and special locomotives had a set of horizontal wheels that could grip that rail for traction. Brake vans had special levers that allowed them to grip the rail for braking. • As you might imagine this system was cumbersome - every train going over the hill had to stop and be broken up to allow the Fell Locomotives and the Brake Vans to be inserted for the trip up or down, and then reassembled to continue the journey. • In 1955 the Remutaka Tunnel (Rimutaka, prior to 2017) was opened to rail traffic and the incline was required no more. Between the locomotive changes and the speed restrictions on the incline, journeys would take upwards of an hour; with the tunnel, that was cut to minutes! • That opens the various communities in the Wairarapa region to serve as commuter towns for Wellington, and many are served by Metlink's Wairarapa Connection trains. Three come in in the morning, three return in the evening, and a couple of mid-day trips bring commuters from north of Upper Hutt into Wellington City. • Trains are predominantly hauled by DFB class locomotives, originally built by GMD in Canada in 1979 and classed as GL22MC, or DF for NZ. In the early 1990s the class underwent upgrades to install turbochargers and became the DFT . Later upgrades including the Brightstar computer control system saw them reclassified once more to DFB . • The coaches or passenger cars are former British Rail Mk2, bought and imported from the UK in the 1990s. Various levels of rebuild have been performed to get them to where they are today. More reading on those can be found by searching for the KiwiRail SW class (panoramic windows) and SE (smaller windows) class passenger cars. • ===================================== • 2Railz equipment: • Field Recording: • Canon GX10 (Camera) -- https://bhpho.to/3vlvlBD • Zoom H6 (Audio Recording) -- https://amzn.to/3B4kQUF • Tentacle Sync -- https://bhpho.to/3paLWqI • DJI Osmo Action (Action Camera) -- https://amzn.to/3vlXTLk • Tripod -- https://amzn.to/3lNcEU9 • Whistler WS1010 (Radio Scanner) -- https://amzn.to/3lZgPMZ • Studio: • Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Extreme ISO (Video mixer) -- https://amzn.to/3DPb7mM • Zoom Livetrak L-8 (Audio mixer) -- https://amzn.to/3FQVTzo • Also in the bag: • Zoom H1n -- https://amzn.to/3DTRxpk • Zoom H4n -- https://amzn.to/3vlF1Mm

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