A Ken Devlin pic of the Stone Train passing Carrisbrook Stadium in Dunedin in the mid 1980s. As is obvious, the railway line provided a good "Scotman's Grandstand" in places and it wasn't unusual for railwaymen to take a passenger train up to one and watch a footy match for free.
With the completion of the new Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin (the first in the world to figure out how to grow real grass under a fixed roof), the last match will be held at Carisbrook tomorrow when the Otago Razorbacks play Southland - the kick-off is at 2.35pm.
And what is the "stone train" you ask? It was a regular train of lime from a quarry at the end of the Makareao Branch (west of Palmerston, north of Dunedin on the SIMT) to the cement works at Burnside, south of the city. When the cement works closed at the end of 1988 the quarry closed, and so did the branch line. During the 1980s, the stone train was typically hauled by a pair of DI locomotives (another post about them later). A couple more Ken Devlin pics of the stone train below.
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| A loaded train climbs above Blueskin Bay |
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| An empty returning train in Dunedin yard. |
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