"Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line"

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You might know or have heard recently the above song, because this month August 2008 is the centential of the opening of the Main Trunk Line; the railway between Auckland and Wellington. There is a celebratory train running today (6th August) between Wellington and Auckland, with various dignatories aboard.

Below is an excerpt from the online Wikipaedia:

'The gap was closed on 7 August 1908 for the first through passenger train, the 11-car Parliamentary Special carrying the Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward and other parliamentarians north to see the American Great White Fleet at Auckland. But much of the new section was temporary, with some cuttings north of Taonui having vertical batters and some unballasted sections of track. Ward drove the last spike on 6 November 1908. The 'Last Spike' monument is at Manganui-o-te-Ao [show location on an interactive map] 39°16.44′, 175°23.37′, near Pokaka. A two-day NIMT service started on 9 November, with an overnight stop at Ohakune.'

On 14 February 1909 the first NIMT express left Auckland for Wellington, an overnight trip scheduled to take 19 hours 15 minutes, with a sleeping car, day cars with reclining seats, and postal/parcels vans. The dining car went on the north express from Wellington to Ohakune, then transferred to the south-bound express, so avoiding the heavy gradients of the central section.

Taumarunui was close to the mid-distance between Auckland and Wellington and the departure times from either Auckland or Wellington appear to have been arranged so that the trains arrived in Taumarunui at about midnight. Taumarunui had a fairly large marshalling yard and I would think the largest cafeteria between the two cities. Taumarunui no doubt benefitted considerably economically from the railway.

My grand-parents, Robert and Anna Carter owned Meredith House, a private hotel, which was a popular stopping-off place for many travellers, especially those wishing to then travel west to Wanganui, because from Taumarunui rail stop-off, they would stay over-night at Meredith House and then be taken by horse and carriage to the Whanganui River and then travel to Wanganui by boat. (If you are interested in learning more about the Whanganui Steamers, go to: http://www.uniquelynz.com/whanganui.htm).

Meredith House was named after its first manager, Mr T.J. Meredith, who at the time was an employee of Ellis and Burnand who had a timber mill at Mananui some six or seven km south of Taumarunui. In 1906 the hotel was in the ownership of grand-aunts of mine, who apparently sold it on some years later to my grandparents. Anyway the hotel predated the Main Trunk Line being completed. It had been constructed from both Auckland and Wellington ends. Documents state that meredith was born in London, England but was the great -grandson of Theodore,King of Corsica. Meredith had quite an adventurous life before coming to New Zealand, bo th in the Royal Navy and the Confederate Navy of America.

Taumarunui is a town sittng on a small plain, on a junction between the Ongarue and Whanganui River, and bounded on the north by hills. And its flatness and centrality of distance between Auckland and Wellington, no doubt had significance in the Railways Department choosing it for a major station and marshalling yard, and perahaps its a convenient connection for travellers in those days, wishing to travel to Wanganui

The first visit I made to Taumarunui by train, certainly not by car or plane, was in 1939 when my grandfather was dying and my mother went back to be with her parents and brothers and sisters. Mum and I returned to Taumarunui twice after that, with my five year younger brother, the last time being just prior to Dad returning from Tonga Is, where he had been training Tongan military as defense against the Japanese advance. We returned to Auckland after that and never returned as a family. My grand-mother came up to Auckland after selling the hotel and lived with us until she died. The hotel was used as a railway lodging house for their staff for sometime but burnt down in 19 86. I did not hear about that until about 2000. I felt quite sad about it, as quite a lot of my young life was connected with Taumarunui. I went to the convent school; I squeezed my Auckland Cheltenham Beach bare feet into boots for the cold Taumarunui winter; I met American serviceman who weres camped on the outskirts of the town, prior to being shipped out to the battles in the Solomon Islands against the Japanese ( One of these serviceman gave me my first soft back book, "Ripleys Believe it or Not", full of amazing facts like; a girl of about 8 years having a baby; and if Chinese were to form up in columns of so many files and march it would stretch so many miles back; Indian men lying on a bed of nails; etc, Wow! Pretty hot stuff for a boy of ten, in those days anyway.

But getting back to the railway. I used to spend a fair bit of time up at the station, a busy place in those days, and met station master, guards, engine drivers and fireman, because of course in those days the engines were steam. I was allowed to push a 'jigger' (a small cart used by railway maintenance staff, operated by manually by two men sitting opposite each other and pushing a handle towards the otther, and this force was transmitted to the jigger's rail wheels) along a short branch track that ran behind the station, and sometimes I was taken in the cab by a friendly engine driver and even taken some miles down the mainline as far as Taringamotu, and even allowed to put my foot on the floor lever that opened up the 'butterfly' firedoors and then allowed to shovel in some coal from the tender behind us. What boys these days, have the freedom and facility to do those sort of things? Another thing that took my attention was that Taumarunui rail yard had a turntable, so I was able to see the mighty engines turned on it. Big black sooty monsters that they were.

Later in 1950's I travelled on an RNZAF railpass from Auckland to Wellington, my first trip since I was aged ten. It brought back memories of the terrific rushes into the Taumarunui station cafeteria, the meat pies, thick sandwiches and thick railway cups and saucers, and the laden-up ,precarious rush back into the carriage when the train whisle blew a warning blast. You would just about get to your seat, and the carriage would give a jolt as the driver gave a starting nudge, and your cuppa would slop over, probably onto a passenger who had decided to stay and sleep rather than face the cafeteria crush. And of course I remembered the soot which seemed to permeate the carriages, even though the windows were closed. Your clothes, especially light-coloured materials ended the journey looking decidedly grubby.

And on arriving in Wellington, to have a delicious mixed grill breakfast in the railway cafeteria. My grand-parents in Meredith House used to put on great breakfasts. I would start with a grapefruit, cut circumferentially and sectorally and dosed with brown sugar or glucose; sausages, eggs and tomato, toast triangles in a silvery toast rack, and a cup of tea. The hotel bought the tea in small wooden, cube shaped boxes, like out-back farmers used to and perhaps still do, buy.

And now we go in diesel trains. But when I travelled in India, it was wonderful to see and travel in a steam train, and watching Doctor Zhivago, one also got to see steam trains. Oh well, with the rising cost of diesel and still no electrifying of the Main Trunk Line, perhaps we will have to go back to steam trains. Ha!

These days, Taumarunui, is to some extent, just a stop for skiers on their way to Ruapehu and Ohakune skifields, and I have heard that as houses were very cheap in Taumarunui some ten years ago, skiers were sometimes buying them as 'lodges'. But to me, Taumarunui will always be the railway yards and Meredith House.

References: "Rolling Back the Years" a magazine published for some years , chronicling the early years of Taumarunui and surrounding areas.

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