Driving Creek Railway

The Driving Creek Railway (DCR ) is a park and mountain railway in Coromandel on the Coromandel Peninsula of the North Island of New Zealand. The slope of the line is in sections, more than 7 %. This makes it one of the steepest adhesion railways in the world pure. The travel time ( for round -trip, including a break in the railway terminal ) is approximately one hour.

Technical Parameters

The narrow-gauge railway has a gauge of 381 mm and a track length of 2.7 km ( without branches ). The Talbahnhof Pottery is located in the pottery. The track is located in a topographically challenging terrain and climbs while a height difference of 110 meters. It rises up to an altitude of 167 m above sea level on the slope of a mountain. They travel on five major bridges, three tunnels and 5 hairpins. It ends at a viewing platform - in phonetic based on the English pronunciation for "Eiffel Tower " - named eyefull Tower. For eyefull Tower belongs in a separate building a toilet, reminiscent of the designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa in terms of style.

One of the bridges is a double-deck bridge ( span 13.90 m ) and perhaps the only one in the world that is in the course of the same railway line used twice at different levels (after driving through a reverse loop ). There can only be one train - either on the upper or the lower level - at the same time cross the bridge. All tunnels during the construction phase were initially very steep scale and relatively deep cuts, which were subsequently converted into the tunnel. From the switchback especially the hairpin # 5 is remarkable, the end of which is on a bridge-like structure, which at high altitude and extends into a valley. Beside the two railway stations on the route ends there in the middle of the Hoki Mai Train Station, which has a passing siding.

History

First DCR

Builder of the track is the potter Barry Brickell. He bought in 1961 north of the city Coromandel land to operate a pottery and to build a garden railway. This had a track width of 266 mm, a 20-meter tunnel and a wood - truss bridge that was located in a 180 - degree turn. The system was extended in 1968 to a 250 -meter-long track on a neighboring property to a pottery kiln and a clay pit. This first train was canceled in 1973 and the material mostly used for the construction of the plant succession.

Second DCR

1973 Barry Brickell bought a 24 acre estate, in order to address the railway and a landscape restoration project on a larger scale can. To him, it is about a harmonious overall work of man, nature and technology. After measuring the first section of the route that was marked by surveying stakes at a distance of 10 meters from the Talbahnhof from - a system of " kilometer " is still used today - he erected in 1974 the first section of his second railway. It was modeled railways, " Bushtramways ", the late 19th century and were used in the first half of the 20th century in New Zealand in forest management. The track material came initially from plants disused coal mines in Huntly, Rotowaro and Bennydale, later from urban yard of Wellington. The project was initially funded from the proceeds of the pottery operation, then through bank loans and income from tourism. Since 1984, it became clear that the revenue from the operation of a production aimed at tourists railroad that would exceed from the pottery operation. From 1988, the web was advertised as a tourist attraction. Because even without government approval for passenger, was initially asked only for a donation, but this achieved only meager financial results. In 1990, she was officially the State permission to transport people, which now also tickets could be sold. The official opening took place on 20 October 1990.

It lasted 28 years, until the final condition of the track was reached in 2002. The railway is one of the few railway lines that were newly built in New Zealand during the last decades.

Rolling stock

All vehicles were produced in the previous owner. There are four DMUs and a locomotive:

In addition, there are freight wagons for the transport of material and in the early days of the operation also flat cars were equipped with seats and used temporarily for passengers. A passenger car, which was built in 1982, and was usually used as a sidecar for the railcar Elephant, in 1994 replaced by a new vehicle with 16 seats. But in the same year loco-hauled passenger trains were abandoned after an accident and the passenger car to the diesel railcar Possum rebuilt.

Traffic

As before, the web is used for the traffic to drive tone and Firewood for the pottery to the workshops. On the web so there are both freight and passenger traffic. In the winter season two races in persons, which takes place on a schedule, offered daily in the summer season six. With high passenger volumes such trips also operate with several trains that are behind a unifying directly used in the same schedule status. Every year, about 30,000 passengers use the train, at the turn of 2011/2012 was of 1,000,000 passengers are welcomed. The visitor frequency is so high that the part of operators and tourism authorities reservation is recommended. 2008, approximately 2,400 train trips took place.

Scenic embedding

The terrain that is passes through the train largely rehabilitated with a rain forest of indigenous plants in New Zealand, after the original forest had been completely cut down here in the middle of the 19th century to gain agricultural land. Along the railway line numerous works of art from the pottery are placed and many technical tools, such as embankments, artistically designed. The challenging terrain and the resulting engineering structures can rail operations look very lummerländisch.