'DC' Locomotives In Difficulty In Whanganui 2014

#Whanganui #KiwiRail #Derailment
DC 4191 has derailed at East Town yard in New Zealand, leaving its workmate 4041 to go on alone and nearly get stuck hauling Train 516 from Castlecliff.
DC's 4191 & 4041 were on the Whanganui shunt on Tuesday 16th December 2014. While the two locos were switching sidings at East Town midway through the day, 4191 split the points rendering it useless. 4041 had no choice but to carry on with the task of hauling train 516 bound for Palmerston North while its mate was re-railed.
This video opens with 4041 slowly moving its tonnage along the Castlecliff Industrial Line. The notorious Heads Road crossing is busy with afternoon road traffic. 4041 has to slow to 10km/hr for this uncontrolled level crossing. But the train looses momentum due to a slight upgrade and the 82 tonne loco can't immediately accelerate the 18 wagon train away again. When the train reaches the old railfreight yard at Whanganui, 4041 is turned on the Wanganui turntable to be cab leading.
The first challenge after departing Whanganui Yard is the gradient from Taupo Quay up to the Guyton Street crossing, but a sure-footed 4041 gets it's train over to East Town. DC 4191 had to wait till the next days shunt before it was taken back to Palmerston North Depot.
The 'D' is for Diesel-Electric and the 'C' is for Clyde Engineering. The DC class is a class of diesel-electric mainline locomotive on the New Zealand rail network, operating on freight trains and formerly on long-distance passenger trains. The class was rebuilt from the 1950's era DA class, between 1978 and 1983, mainly in Australia. The 85 member class remained numerically dominant until the mid-2010s when withdrawals began.

[@TheTrainspotterFromTauranga]

Nice to hear DC 4041 growling out of Taupo Quay. Reminds me of watching DC's in Auckland.

[@tonymckeage1028]

Great Video as always! Great comment in the description, I wish i had read it first! It does give a hint as to the basic inefficiencies in our rail network! Wanganui is a great example of an almost ideal layout to service the industrial/port area! It is with sadness that I not the decline in the network the latest being the east coast line being (not officially). cut back to Napier !

[@MarkSeconi]

Thankyou for your comments. In the years since this video, they have relaid almost all the curved track to be found on the Branch Lines in this town with a mix of 91LB & 100LB rail on concrete sleepers which has allowed the use of the DL locomotive. The daily Castlecliff to Wellington express freight has grown to 32 wagons during the dairy season and can run on Saturdays & Sundays at the peak of the season. The train runs with about 20 wagons in the winter months Monday - Friday. The Castlcliff Line is active for 3.4km. A further 500m or so will remain abandoned and the remander that connects to the wharf is in the process of being lifted. Sadly some of the Heritage wagons seen in the turntable shots are to be moved to other museums so the local rail-club can consolidate its collection and halve the land use in order to reduce the increasing costs of leasing the railway property.

[@beaka50]

Great work catching the cranes in action. Is there any chance you can capture some photos around the turntable area and put on here as a slideshow or similar. Some great old tank wagons and old NZR huts caught my eye in your vid and I would like to weather my models like these. many thanks and excellent video

[@HotForgeChaos]

I wondered why he was going long hood lead, then I saw the description

[@danny1460]

No crossing arms for busy crossing?....Now they have double gates for the no Horn sections

[@murphfanatic]

Why did the old girl get stuck out at Castlecliff? Thats not uphill there is it? Nice capture anyway!

[@MarkSeconi]

There is a short uphill grade at this point. The line gently dips down beside an old swamp and gently rises up again to the crossing. Perhaps most of this train is stretched along the bit that rises up during the stalling. The problem is the loss of momentum to meet the 10kmhr restriction for the trains.
You might be surprised to know that the rail lengths long this branch are a mix of 55lb & 70lb rail, some of which is stamped from the 1930's. Also the tonnage coming off the branch is comparable to what was coming out in the 1970's (so the old fellows tell me)