Three Freight Trains & A Rail Tour Head Throught East Town

In the space of Two hours, Four movements are recorded passing through East Town Yard on the Marton - New Plymouth Line in New Zealand. Train 544 (hauled in this video by DL's 9302 & 9728) runs Northbound from Palmerston North to the large Fonterra Dairy factory at Whareroa. It conveys peak season milk that was loaded onto container wagons at Longburn. Tagged on the back of the container wagons are empty domestic curtain-sider wagons and empty shipping containers. In November 2024, the Glenbrook Vintage Railway ran a ten-day rail experience named the 'East & West Rail Tour' over the central and lower North Island railway network with their well known yellow carriages, specifically seeking out journeys along lines that are freight-only. At certain locations during the tour, the eight car consist was used to run a day-long side-excursions with for the locals. In this video Train EO53 with heritage units DBR 1254 & DC 4818 on the head, was travelling back to Palmerston North, having been based in Taranaki for two nights. Train 565 is hauled by DL9786 and has just started it's journey. The containers were loaded onto wagons at the Castlecliff freight hub. Wellington is New Zealand's capital city and it's port is Whanganui's freight link with the outside world. Train 545 (hauled in this video by 9319 & 9544) is bringing the empty milk containers back Southbound again to Longburn, and loaded curtain-siders bound for a domestic destination. The KiwiRail DL class was manufactured by CRRC Dalian 中车大连机车车辆有限公司 with engines from MTU. Introduced from 2010 onwards, they are the most powerful diesel-electric locos in service in New Zealand. The class represents the first order for a Chinese-built locomotive from a western country. The 9000 series allocation was chosen for this class of locomotive as the number 9 represents longevity and good luck in Chinese culture. On the Day of the is video, Friday the 8th of November 2024, there are 73 of the class in existence, with three or four of the ealiest class members now laid up at Hutt Workshops. The 17 member DB class was introduced to the NZ rail network in 1965-1966. Ten units were rebuilt between 1980 and 1982 to be known as the DBR class. They were powered by a EMD 8-645 engine. DBR 1254 passed into preservation in 2017. The DA class were introduced to the NZ Rail network between 1955 & 1967. There were 145 members of the class. They were the A1A-A1A versions of the Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) G12. Between 1978 and 1983, 85 of the locomotives were rebuilt into DC's (EMD model G22ARs). DC 4818 passed into preservation at the Glenbrook Vintage Railway in 2018. DC 4818 was re-certified for the KiwiRail network just weeks before this video. East Town Marshalling Yard was opened in 1959. Situated 46 km from Marton Junction on the Marton - New Plymouth Line, this yard accommodated the majority of Whanganui's wagon sorting. The Yard had a goods shed and station building to accomodate a large workforce. The new yard also meant that mainline trains did not need to travel down a branch line into Whanganui township to the smaller yards in the town that had become inadequate for growing rail traffic. East Town yard also provided greater storage capacity for the nearby railway workshops. After the workshops closed in October 1986, East Town yard was downsized in the late 1980's and again in the mid 1990s. In 2002, the railway operating company Tranz Rail began to focus on only moving bulk commodities in fixed-length wagon consists, creating less of a need for shunting operations. A log hub was opened at East Town in 2014 and it ran for Nine years before logging grading and sorting operations were moved elsewhere.