'It was quite a feat of engineering to have a trainline, requiring flat and straight tracks, through a land famous for hills, valleys and bends.'
To put it mildly. What has always impressed me the most about the line is not the Raurimu Spiral itself, but the fact that the guy who designed it, R. W. Holmes, visualised the whole thing simply in his imagination, despite the inability to see it all from one location and the poor quality of surveys at the time. The damn thing's ingenious and the alternate route isn't even worth thinking about - it would've been a spectacular ride, but nobody wants to build something with nine viaducts.
In any case, consider me jealous. I'm pretty sure the only part of that trip I've done is Palmerston North to Taihape, on a steam excursion when I was little.
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Date: 2008-12-10 11:20 pm (UTC)To put it mildly. What has always impressed me the most about the line is not the Raurimu Spiral itself, but the fact that the guy who designed it, R. W. Holmes, visualised the whole thing simply in his imagination, despite the inability to see it all from one location and the poor quality of surveys at the time. The damn thing's ingenious and the alternate route isn't even worth thinking about - it would've been a spectacular ride, but nobody wants to build something with nine viaducts.
In any case, consider me jealous. I'm pretty sure the only part of that trip I've done is Palmerston North to Taihape, on a steam excursion when I was little.