South Island Limited

The South Island Limited was a passenger express train operated by the New Zealand Government Railways between 1949 and 1970. It operated over the (almost 500 km) route between Christchurch and Invercargill.

Previous expresses

Expresses between Christchurch and Dunedin began operating as soon as the Main South Line was opened. These services—the precursor to the South Island Limited—were the flagship of New Zealand's railways in the nineteenth century, and accordingly had the most modern motive power and rollingstock available. They were initially hauled by members of the first J class and limited to a speed of 60 km/h, resulting in a journey time of eleven hours, but the timetable was accelerated with the introduction of the Rogers K class. The K locomotives could achieve speeds of up to 90 km/h and they helped to quicken the schedule, with the T class handling the train on the hilly section between Oamaru and Dunedin. Upon their introduction in 1885, the N class took on the express duties, followed by the U and U^B classes. The Q and A class Pacifics cut the journey's time to eight hours in the early years of the twentieth century.

In 1904, it became possible to operate an express all the way from Christchurch to Invercargill in a single day. The Dunedin-Invercargill run was treated as an extension of the Christchurch-Dunedin express, and the train was sometimes called the Invercargill Express. In March 1914, it was possible to travel from Christchurch to Invercargill in thirteen hours. A^B class locomotives capable of speeds of 107 km/h took over from the A and Q locomotives from 1915, but in the 1930 and wartime, maximum SIMT speed was limited to 80 km/h and track and running conditions did not allow the acceleration of the late 1940s when the express, at its zenith, reached sustained higher speeds on the Canterbury Plains and became the South Island Limited.

A night express service, including two Sleeping cars, ran from 1928.^[1] The four sleepers for the service were rebuilt at Addington from ordinary cars, each with an 8-berth compartment for ladies, and a 12-berth for men.^[2] The sleeping cars had gone by 1935^[3] and by 1943 the only night trains were on Sundays.^[4]

Operation

In 1939, the second J class was introduced, followed by the J^A class in 1946. These locomotives allowed the service's schedule to be accelerated, and in 1949, the South Island Limited was introduced. It operated three days a week and had less stops than the expresses, which continued to operate on all other days.

In its very early days, it was occasionally operated by A^B class engines, but the more powerful J and J^A locomotives quickly became the usual motive power, and they were famous for hauling long strings of the familiar red cars at higher average speeds, achieving a travel time between Christchurch and Dunedin of 7 hours and 9 minutes, and completing the entire journey to Invercargill in 11 hours 20 minutes.^[5]

In the immediate post war years and until 1956, the general aim of two daylight expresses daily in both directions on the SIMT continued with the SI Limited being supplemented on the peak demand days of Mon, Wed, Fri by a second stopping express, trains 160/175, which also provided an early morning departure from Dunedin, at 8.45 am in the 1935 and 1952 timetables^[6] on the Dunedin express to Christchurch and southbound following the 'Limited' out of Christchurch at midday in the 1920s and 30s and postwar at 9.00 am south^[7] to arrive at Dunedin at 5.25 pm, 2 hours later than the SI Limited.

The second stopping express was intended to be upgraded to a daily service by multiple-unit operation of the second batch of Drewery twin-set railcars approved in 1955. However, this was cancelled in 1957 because mechanical troubles experienced in the first years of Fiat-engined railcar operations meant a dozen railcars had to have new engines and crankcases fitted in 1957-8. All the railcar engines needed to be rebuilt by Fiat/NZR personnel, raising costs and losses to the point where South Island express operations were consolidated into a single daily express in 1956.

However, 160/175 continued to run as a relief holiday express until 1966 and these services were reincarnated as pure mail and express freight trains—DJ hauled—from 1970 to 1985 on essentially the same 1949 timetable, leaving Christchurch (Middleton) and Dunedin at 9.00 am for arrival at 5.00 pm, but stopping only at Timaru and Oamaru for 30 min for shunting. This meant that the offered passenger service on 160/175 was no longer compatible with the passenger or freight requirements.^[8]

A supplementary operation of the 'car-equipped' overnight express goods, which stopped for passengers only at Timaru and Oamaru, were cancelled in 1956. This service, which had a more convenient timetable than operated by 189/190 (F,S), ran Christchurch to Dunedin (8.25 pm-4.58 am) on M,T,W,Th. Oamaru was reached at 1.26 am and the carriage was held at a Dunedin station dock platform until the more civilised hour of 7.00 am. The Dunedin-Christchurch service (9.40 pm-6.38 am) carried a 1st-Class car to compete with the private 'Starliner' evening buses, as an interim measure until the new railcars were delivered. However this service was cancelled—along with supplementary Christchurch-Ashburton suburban services—in 1958, resulting in the remaining South Island Limited operating an unattractive compromise timetable which left Invercargill too early, had too many stops, and relied too much on slab-seated 2nd-Class cars of lesser comfort.

The original consist of the SI Limited was three 1st- and four 2nd-Class cars providing 330 seats overall^[9] with capacity of over 500 in the school holidays. But by the late 1960s, the holiday-peak traffic had eroded and the usual consist for most of the year was two 1st- and two 2nd-Class smoker and non-smoker cars^[10] providing 176 seats. The main traffic for the SI Limited was as a long-distance service to connect with the inter-island Union Steamship Company Steamer Express ferry at Lyttelton and to carry mail, with up to 5–6 ZP wagons^[11] for maximum revenue.

The South Island Limited carried mail as well as passengers, and this meant the train would have up to six mail cars attached to the consist. The quantities of mail that had to be exchanged on and off the train during the course of its journey often led to delays, and the attempts of J and J^A engine crews to regain lost time became legendary. A stretch of predominantly straight track across the Canterbury Plains near Rakaia acquired the nickname of "the racetrack" in New Zealand railway jargon due to the sustained high speeds that late-running South Island Limiteds sometimes achieved as they raced to reach Lyttelton in time to connect with the ferry's departure. The stories of the speeds attained across the Canterbury Plains are the stuff of great myth as well as legend. Locomotive crews claim to have broken the New Zealand railway speed record of 122.5 km/h (78 mph), set on 25 October 1940 by an RM class Vulcan railcar, but none of these assertions can be authenticated.

Replacement

By 1970, steam locomotives had been almost entirely withdrawn from New Zealand. The North Island had been completely dieselised by the end of 1967, and the 1968 introduction of the DJ class had led to the dieselisation of almost all of the South Island's services.

However, the South Island Limited continued to operate with steam motive power, repeating the pattern in the North Island (where the K^A and J^As hauled the Express and relief expresses until 1965, nine to ten years after steam had been replaced on NIMT freight and the Wairarapa line by 1955–56); an apparently peculiar circumstance given that steam locomotives might have been expected to have finished their lives on quiet, unimportant rural branch lines rather than the country's premier expresses. However, this was not unusual. For example, Southern Pacific used steam on the Los Angeles-San Francisco Daylight till 1955, Norfolk & Western ran its three Norfolk-Cincinnati expresses under steam till late 1958, and all New York Central Niagara and Hudson locomotives remained in service till 1956–57.

The SI Limited averaged 40.7 mph from Christchurch to Oamaru, while the Daylight, Lark and Pocahantas and Cavalier just beat that at 43 mph, dogged by grades and the same political demands for extra stops. The last British steam express routes were London-Southampton-Bournemouth in 1967 (107 miles, 1 stop, 2.05 hrs); Edinburgh–Aberdeen in 1966 (151 miles, 4 stops, 3hrs); London-Exeter in 1964 (171 miles, 4hrs), and Liverpool-Glasgow in 1967 (2.5 hrs), and they were all fast services over demanding routes.

The last generation of BR and NZR steam locomotives were more suitable for fast passenger services, being reasonably thermally-efficient at 50–90 mph (but inefficient below 30 mph). The SI Limited schedule was slightly slower from 1956, as a number of stops had been re-introduced with the consolidation of passenger services in 1956 (raising the number to 19), and overall, the Invercargill-Christchurch journey took half an hour longer (11 hrs 50 minutes), requiring a cold, early 7:40 am start from Invercargill.

In the last years of the South Island Limited, intermediate stops were increased to 21 but overall journey time reduced to 11 hrs 40 minutes. The decision was finally taken to withdraw railcars and end the use of steam locomotives in 1967, with the order for the final nine DJ diesel-electric locomotives to replace the J^As on SIMT expresses and express freights, on 26 November 1967,^[12] (without calling for tenders as planned,to consider more suitable alternatives to the DJ) to take advantage of World Bank financing which required locomotives financed by the loan to be delivered by the end of 1969.

The problem was, the DJ was not suitable, as it had only 50–60% of the J^A capacity to pull 400 tons at 50–60 mph. The South Island Limited was replaced by the diesel-hauled Southerner on 1 December 1970. This was not the end of the steam expresses, however; J^A locomotives continued to work Friday and Sunday evening expresses on the same route for almost a year. The last steam-hauled express, and last use of a steam locomotive in revenue service in New Zealand, ran with a J^A on 26 October 1971.

References

• Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 – Train Services

External links

• Poster for South Island Limited Express
• Excellent six part photo pictorial with great commentary too by Wilson Lythgoe