When the Otago Central Branch ended in April 1990, so ended one of the most scenic railway lines in New Zealand, and although railcar services on the line had been axed by the Muldoon government 14 years earlier, there were often excursion trains. The most spectacular 64 km (40 mile) section through the Taieri Gorge as far as Middlemarch was rescued by the Dunedin City Council together with the Otago Excursion Train Trust, and today the Taieri Gorge Limited is a major tourist attraction. The rest of the line (except that through the Cromwell Gorge which was drowned in the early 1980s in the interests of hydro power) was turned into the Otago Central Rail Trail.
This latest book from Penguin, Trail, is one of the more comprehensive pictorial treatments of the nature and scenery of the Rail Trail.
If you want the history with pictures of the railway line before it closed, our best-selling book The Otago Central Railway : a tribute is also available in our shop.
No comments:
Post a Comment