Saturday, August 13, 2011

On Tour; Dorkland



This week I've spent several days on a work trip. While this has involved mostly listening to experts talk about sciency stuff, eating bad food and drinking, I did find some time for a bit of trainspotting.

I was on top of the hill, and it was a short walk down to Newmarket. far faster than driving the distance anyway.

I was walking down Newmarket rd when i noticed that you can see the infamous new triangle from a car park. off I wandered assuming that I'd just get tossed out if someone had a problem.
no sooner had I arrived at the fence than a train headed off out to west Auckland.


This had just passed when another train arrived from the west.

Well, apart from the wire fence, not a bad spot to watch. however, there were people sitting in cars looking anxious, so I moved on to let them conclude their drug deals in peace...


What did strike me about the station is that its very European, and quite reminiscent of Swiss and German stations that I've been through, with a modern concourse above the platforms, and display screens to show what train is on which platform.

The other end of an SD set. actually quite modern looking given its only an old BR mk III coach. Why we can't build something similar here is beyond me.

I tried to get some pictures of the AD railcars, but I was never in quite the right spot when they turned up.


Finally, an SD set heads off towards Britomart. I saw 6 trains in about 15 minutes. While it was 5 O'clock, it was still quite impressive.

For something completely different, this would be a great station to model. Lots of trains, modern surroundings, and the possibilities of some freights out onto the North Auckland line.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

good piccies. funny you mentioning the euro style urban station architecture. modelling NZR is great (thats why we do it) but oooh look at something like lisbon station... paekok york style anyone?