Well I finally did get around to taking some photos of the progress being made on the New Lynn rail trench.
This photo looks eastwards towards the Clark Street roundabout and where the future New Lynn train station will be.
This photo looks west from roughly the same spot. The current line is on the right of the image and the location of the trench walls are quite obvious.
This photo looks towards where the future train station will be. One of the big cranes is shown in the foreground. I think their job may be largely over as the piles needed for the trench walls have been completed.
This photo looks directly towards where the future station will be. The excavated area is below where the orange pipes can be seen.
This photo looks at an excavated part of the rail trench, from the current train station platforms. It looks pretty damn deep. I think this would be the area of the future station.
Another angle of the photo above.
Overall it certainly is interesting to see how this project is coming along. I am surprised at how deep the trench is, although perhaps it is extra deep in the vicinity of where the station will be (the only bit that has been excavated out so far). Over the next few months the digging out process should continue quite quickly I imagine, as both the trench walls have now been constructed. This will mean that visually the progress should be quite fast over that time. I look forward to heading back there in 2-3 months to see how things have changed.
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looks like it’s all going well 2010 will be a great year for us railfans new Newmarket station, Onehagna branch reopening,manaku spar, and DL loco’s it will be a great for rail
Yes 2010 should be a very interesting year. Hopefully we’ll see lots of progress on the electrification project too.
I think Newmarket station kicks things off in November this year.
It’s a bit of a shock to be reminded of the narrow Cape Gauge the Auckland trains run on. Do you know if it affects operations? (Apart from making it harder to get good rolling stock, of course).
I only think it’s an issue if we were trying to run 160 kph inter-city trains. That photo makes the tracks look extra narrow due to the extra tracks sitting inside them – which is to prevent derailment so the train doesn’t fall into the trench.