Weathering the storm

Over the last few weeks New Zealand has been hammered by winter storms that have caused flooding and significant snow falls across the country. The East Otago area didn't miss out on its share of the bad weather. Significant damage to the Opihi bridge south of Temuka and several slips between Dunedin and Waitati caused the closure of the main south line between Dunedin and Christchurch. Kiwi Rail had to rely on road bridging to get priority traffic through.
I didn't get the chance to get out and foam too much due to the weather. Wouldn't have mattered anyway, nothing was running around here. 
I did grab a few shots of a Taieri Gorge Railway passenger service at Waitati. I have no idea what it was doing here but it was there for a few days. If you know why it was stuck at Waitati please let me know.

DJ 1240 holding the loop at Waitati with a TGR train. On the siding is ETM 513 with its support wagon. 26/06/13.

Another shot of DJ 1240 with its train.

On the tailend was DJ 3107. This DJ has retained the orginal front and side windows.

On Thursday as I headed down to the local school to pick up my son I saw a massive 922 Dunedin - Middleton freight picking some empty 'golidies' that had been stuck in Palmerston for the last week. To my amazement it was still holding on the main when were heading home. I had the camera in the car so it would have been rude not to grab a shot or two. A quick trip to Bushey and a short wait was all it took before 922 showed up. 

DFT 7295 leads a huge 922 Dunedin - Middleton freight through Bushey.

A going away shot of the five loco's on the point of 922. Normal practice in other parts of the country but anymore than two loco's on the front of a train is pretty exciting down here. A sad looking DFT 7023 is the last of the loco's.

Travelling through East Otago, 922 is normally made up of two loco's and maybe a few wagons plus the 'goldies' it picks up in Palmerston. To see a long 922 with five loco's on point was pretty exciting. A personal favourite DFT 7023 was included up front. From what I hear it was damaged earlier in the week after hitting a slip. With the recent news that the DC and DFT locomotive fleet is likely to be reduced due to the introduction of the DL's I'm hoping the damage to 7023 isn't too bad and they repair it.

I have some leave from work coming up so I'm hoping to get out a bit more - weather dependant - and bring you some more posts.

And thats about it.