Railway Observer Preview

The New Zealand Railway Observer : Issued Bi-monthly, ISSN 0028-8624
Issue 394, December 2025-January 2026
Volume 82, No. 5

Contents

A426, steaming through Houipapa on the Catlins River Branch on 25 March 1968 with an excursion train heading for Tahakopa. Another excursion, this time with Vulcan railcar RM50. Photograph by Graham Aitken

Electrifying The North Island Rail Network – Graeme Carter

Vulcan to the Bush – 15 March 1958 – Richard Emerson

Photographs by Ian Gilmore

NZR Recollections – Part two – Neil Kurse

Research Notes #244 – House Moving by Rail – Graeme McClare

What is ETCS? – Graeme Carter

The Q Class Locomotive – in their Prime – E L Sincock

From the Top of the Raurimu Spiral, Down at the Station, Letters to the Editor, Book and DVD Review

There are 26 colour photos in this issue.

Click Image for full size

The New Zealand Railway Observer

The Railway Observer is for everyone who takes an interest in the railways and tramways of
New Zealand. Read about their fascinating present developments and past history.

We publish it:-

  • Six times a year for members of the Society and the public.
  • For everyone who takes an interest in the railways and tramways in New Zealand.
  • It is packed with information and pictures.
  • Design · Construction · Operation · Development · History
  • Mailed direct to Society members as part of the annual subscription.
  • Copies may also be purchased from the Society or ordered through your favourite hobby shop or bookshop.

Membership of the Society brings you:

  • Six issues of The New Zealand Railway Observer each year
  • The Society’s members’ newsletter “Turntable”
  • Special members’ prices for all Society publications
  • Opportunities to insert free private announcements in The New Zealand Railway Observer and Turntable
  • Opportunities to join your nearest Society Group for meetings and outings with other railfans.
  • Access to the Society’s archives of information on railways.

Contributions

Manuscripts

We welcome, for possible publication, contributed articles and notes, including photographs. Articles should not normally exceed about 4000 words, and should be supplied electronically in PC format accompanied by a hard-copy version. We will consider a modest rate of payment for material published – enquire for details. Neither the Editor nor the Society can undertake to return unsolicited contributions.

Photographs

Photographs should be supplied as clear, sharp, glossy black and white or colour prints not less than 10cm x 15cm in size; or, for full colour reproduction, clear, sharp colour slides or transparencies. Digital scans should be no less than 300 dpi, preferably sent on a memory stick. The Editor reserves the right to reproduce colour slides or transparencies in monochrome. Black and white and colour prints are retained by the Society, but colour slides and transparencies are returned after use.

For more information write to

New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society,
1A North Street, Petone
Lower Hutt, 5012, New Zealand.

Or send us an email at nzrls@actrix.co.nz