Monday, January 3, 2011

the Ferrymead Railway museum, Christchurch


Those passing through Christchurch these holidays will find much vintage transport interest at the Ferrymead Museum. This was the site of New Zealand's first public railway which opened to nearby Christchurch in 1863. Four years later the Ferrymead station was made redundant by the Lyttelton tunnel. However, a museum railway on the original site was created in the 1960s.

Today Ferrymead doesn't just boast the railway museum - with electric catenary for the preseved electric locomotives - but also an operating electric tramway, a collection of fire trucks and an historic village with displays of various old crafts since as letterpress printing.

In the photo, locomotive D140, built by Scott Brothers in Christchurch in 1887, hauls a two carriage train along the railway.

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