Trains at Arthur's Pass April 2024

During the month of April I was in the beautiful alpine village of Arthur's Pass during my stay I documented some of the Kiwi Rail train movements captured at various places in the Arthur's Pass Village that is located in the Bealey Valley in the spectacular Southern Alps mountain range on the South Island of New Zealand.
The Arthur's Pass village sits at 737 meters above sea level.
The Arthur's Pass station is situated along the Midland Railway line that connects the East Coast To The West Coast via the 8.5 kilometre Otira tunnel that runs under the southern alps between Arthur's Pass and Otira.
Various trains can be seen in operation in this short presentation including the world famous Tranz Alpine tourist passenger train that runs daily from Christchurch to Greymouth return. Various coal trains an freight trains and the banker locomotives that are based in Otira that are used to add extra power to haul east bound trains up the steeply graded Otira Tunnel to Arthur's Pass station along with some shunting in the Arthur's pass station yard.
Filmed: April 2024
Cameras: GoPro Hero 11 and Samsung phone A72

[@user-qg2ze6ui5c]

The water un that river, very glad to see it again, beautiful 😅😅😅

[@steveruss8369]

Thanks for watching 🙏🙏

[@GirlVersusWild]

Trains must be good entertainment in a little village 😊

[@steveruss8369]

Yeep keeps me entertained during the day in between photography and hiking adventures.

[@russy8488]

Nice scenes and locations along with the DF class locos. Thanks for this always enjoy seeing Arthur’s Pass videos.

[@steveruss8369]

Thanks just recently completed another three days and nights filming Railway action at Arthur's I'll have an hour long presentation coming up next month.

[@GirlVersusWild]

@@steveruss8369wow!

[@flowathens]

Hi from Elefteria! It is so cool to travel by train.

[@steveruss8369]

Love train travel wish n.z had more train travel options especially on the South Island!!

[@John-wd5om]

This video is absolutely amazing, I wondered where the dx class where now 🙏👍

[@steveruss8369]

Thank you!! I'll have another longer video uploaded from Arthur's in a few weeks time.

[@tigertiger1699]

🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@steveruss8369]

@@tigertiger1699 Thank you very much 🙏🙏

[@phillipcollins9290]

Thanks. Are some of the passenger trains banked? If so, by a crewed banker or remote? Was that coal wagon set out because of sticking brakes? I love the sound of the GE U26C's. We have them in South Africa as well, our Class 34.000; 34.400 and 34.900. On the Orex line they were consisted with electric locos.

[@steveruss8369]

@phillipcollins9290 Hii Phillip, yess the Tranzalpine passenger train has additional locos attached at Arthur's Pass for the run down through the 8km Ōtira tunnel as extra breaks on the train and for safety reasons if the train needs to head back to Arthur's Pass. Same for the trip heading east up the tunnel from Ōtira to Arthur's Pass a loco is added to the rear of the train for safety reasons.
And coal trains heading up from Ōtira also have four extra Dx class locos added for additional power up the steeply graded Ōtira Tunnel the locos are detached at Arthur's and either catch a ride with a west bound train back down to Ōtira or travel light back to Ōtira.
The section from Ōtira to Arthur's pass was electrified until the mid 90s when a ventilation system was insisted at the Otira end of the tunnel to allow desile locos to travel through the tunnel.
I have a couple longer vids of trains operating around Arthur's that will be available on my channel in the next few weeks.

[@phillipcollins9290]

@@steveruss8369 Thank you. I also wondered about the safety possibility. It seems Tranzalpine now is much longer and has some very smart new coaches.

[@steveruss8369]

@phillipcollins9290 most welcome mate. Yess the Tranzalpine has a couple of new coaches you will see a new one that's recently been added to the consist in the next vids from Arthur's Pass.