2020.... Yeah Nah.

DFT 7008 with DFT's 7132 and 7051 and a short 920 Dunedin - Middleton freight hold the loop at Merton after crossing a southbound freight service. DFT 7008 had not long returned to South Island rails after a few years working in the North Island. 11/01/19.

Hello blog. Long time no see! 

While driving past a train the other day I got thinking about my southern rails blog. Between family and work commitments and a health issue the blog had been long forgotten and I wasn't even sure that it was still 'live'. So logging on this morning I was pleased to find it was still around but with very little recent content! Considering the how 2020 has gone so far I'm not surprised. 

Between pandemics, lockdowns, travel restrictions and natural disasters 2020 has been a bit average. As I've been telling my kids, look around and take note of what you're living through. Your kids and grandchildren will be asking you about 2020, probably as part of class projects and history lessons. 

All these things have also made railfanning difficult so there haven't been a lot of photos of Kiwi Rails finest taken recently. Below is a few I have managed to get over the last year or two.

Enjoy!

DFT 7036 and DC 4755 departing Palmerston with train 937, a Middleton - Dunedin freight. 11/01/19.

 DFT 7008 and DFB 7239 crest the Tumai Bank with a Saturday morning 920 Dunedin - Middleton freight on a frosty winters morning in East Otago. This is a good catch for me with DFB 7008 being one of my favourite locomotives. 29/06/2019.                               

DXC 5229 and DFT 7036 climb  the grade to the former Hampden railway station site with northbound Dunedin to Middleton freight service 920. 21/08/2019. 

A very average shot of DI 1102 passing south through the site of the former of Hampden Station on its delivery trip to Dunedin Railways. DI 1102 had been leased to Dunedin Railways by the Christchurch based Diesel Traction Group as a back up for their DJ locomotives in what was forecasted to be a bumper 2019 / 2020 cruise ship year. 2020 and the corona virus had different ideas. Septermber 2019.

DXR 8022 leads DFT 7051 and DC 4801 through Herbert on 934 Dunedin - Middleton freight.

DXR's are extremely rare visitors to the lower South Island and only travel down to Dunedin for maintenance at Kiwi Rails heavy lift facility at Hillside. 03/12/2019.                                 

DI 1102 with a DJ and two Dunedin Railway carriages heads north along South Island Main Truck at Katiki with a service to Christchurch to return DI 1102 to the Diesel Traction Group at Ferrymead. This is a bitter sweet photo as it was one of the last Dunedin Railway trains before they went into 'hibernation' in March due to the downturn in tourism due to Covid. Staff have been laid off, rolling stock laid up or returned and the Taieri Gorge railway mothballed. June 2020.

 And that's about it.