OVER THE RIMUTAKA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 15, 17 January 1880, Page 2

OVER THE RIMUTAKA.

, Having a couple of days at my disposal, and the smart little steamer Kennedy being about to make the trip to Wellington and back, remaining there just long enough to suit nay purpose, the temptation to gratify a long cherised desire to see the railway over the Rimutaka range into the Wairarapa was too strong to be resisted, so at ten o'clock on the evening of Thursday the Bth inst., I started from Nelson, and after a very smooth passage across the Straits the Kennedy moored alongside the Wellington wharf early on the following morning. On the next day, after very nearly missing the morning train to Featherston through placing too much confidence in a Wellington cabby, who, on the previous evening had engaged to call for me but failed to keep his promise, I left the Wellington station at 7.40 a.m , in a train of nine carriages which was soon wriggling along the winding way that leads to the Hutt, and, if I could judge at all from the peculiarity of its motion and the frequency of the jerks which threw us from one side to the other as we passed the numerous curves, must have appeared to anyone looking down at it from the hills at the base of which the railway is constructed very like one of those many-jointed toy snakes which perform such eccentric antics when held out by the tail. Somebody once humorously described Suburban North as a district nine miles long and a chain wide, but even supposing this to be a correct statement of its dimensions, it would have the advantage over that portion of the Wellington suburbs which lies between the city and the Hutt, as that, which is about seven miles in length, at very rare intervals exceeds half a chain in length. Indeed it may be described as a sea wall, a railway, a road, and then steepbarren hills. After passing two small stations we arrived at Fetone, where are some extensive railway workshops, including five or six large galvanised iron sheds and all the necessary machinery, the whole being under the superintendence of Mr Ashcroft, the railway manager, who lives close by the station. Tbe next station, which is larger than any on the Nelson line, is the Lower Hutt, and immediately after passing this a good view is obtained of the little township known as the Hutt, where' are a couple of churches and several large and comfortable looking houses, which I should judge to be the country residences of business men in town, as they are altogether too large for farm houses. The line runs for several miles along the right bank of the river and immediately under the hills, solid masonry work, something similar to that on the Greymouth line, being a necessary precaution against landslips. At first sight it appears strange that the railway should be taken by this route while on the other side of the river is a fertile plain well studded with homesteads, but the reason,. I presume, is that by adopting this line a better site is available for the bridge over the Hutt river, which here is comparatively confined, while below, the river bed is of a great width, and seems to speak of devastating floods at no very distant date. After crossing the river the railway runs under the h:lls on the left bank, all the fiat land being on the opposite side, and I must say of the line as far as the Upper Hutt that it possesses this great advantage for the tourist, that all that is to be seen of the country is always either on one Bide or the other, and never on both at the same time, so that there is no fear of missing anything that is worth seeing. A few miles further on and we arrive at a station to which has been given the somewhat romantic name of Silverßtream. There is not much to be seen here, the only object that attracted my notice being a rather pretty little church, which brought to my mind a story told of the architect of a public building of some note • in Nelson, who, on the occasion of the foundation stone being laid by the then Governor o| the colony, made a spoeefy in the course

of which he said that with the blessing of, God and three coats of paint the building would last for a great number of years. In the congregation of the Silverstreani church, however, this combination of works with faith apparently does not exist, the preservation of the building having been left entirely to the divine blessiuar, the paint precaution being altogether omitted, to the detriment not only of the condition but of the appearance of the church. But the traiu won't stop even to allow me to pass criticisms on' an unpainted church, and so here we are at the Upper Hutt, a picturesque little village, among the most prominent features of which are the church, the Bank of New Zealand, and a large hotel. A halt" of about five minutes is made here, and then we are off again and very soou it becomes apparent, from the laboring of the engine aud* the slackend pace, that We have at last (eighteen miles from Wellington) commenced the .ascent of the far famed Riinntaka. Along sidings and through cuttings we proceed for about three miles — the line reminding mo very much of the new road between Motueka Valley and Spooner's Range — when a long whistle from the engine induces me to look ahead, and I see that we are about to enter a tunnel,* so small that it looks as though the engine had been measured for this bole iv the hill. In a few seconds we are out, of the bright sunshine and in the blackest of darkness, and, what is worse; are threatened with suffocation, the atmosphere beiog thickly impregnated with the sulphurous smoke emitted by the engine. The passage through the tunnel occupied very little more than a minute, but that was quite long enough to teach us to appreciate the fresh air when we emerged into it again. We have now placed a long spur between ourselves and the Valley of the Hutt, and have entered a wooded plateau where a sawmill is at work. More cuttings, more sidings, still climbing, and now we dash through a second tunnel much shorter than the laßt, and in a short time arrive at the Kaitoke station, which is eight miles from the summit. The train stops here a few minutes, and I see that refreshments of all kinds, including capital tea and coffee, are obtainable at moderate prices. A tiny Swindon, station in the midst of. a wild dreary unpopulated country. Another start, arid soon we are in a thick wood, beautifully ornamented with the bright scarlet of the rata flower. We look out of the window, and a hundred feet below is a silvery brooklet glistening in the sun where it is permitted by the giant trees, who seem to act as warders, to look at itself in "the water 5 we look ahead, and can see little but trees, trees, trees, on the mountain, above and in the gully below. Now and then the dark green is relieved by a glimpse of something of a light yellow color of which we catch sight through some thinner portion than ordinary of the forest. This is one of the clay cuttings through which we are to pass in a minute or two. For a couple of miles we are travelling almost on a level, and the engine seems to delight in its freedom from the perpetual drag which, for twelve miles, had never ceased, and dashes merrily along the narrow sidings, with the dark valley below, and occasionally over a short' bridge across a gully, down which is is evident that in wet weather there must be a mighty torrent rushing. We have got out of the clay at last, and are in among the slate rock, the walls of the cuttings being in many instances thirty -and forty feet high, and almost perpendicular. We are high up on the mountain now, and just as we are beginning to wonder how we are going to surmount the still lofty elevation before us, the engine gives another shriek, we turn a corner, and find ourselves at the station known as " The Summit." Here i 3 already waiting the train which has come up the other side from Featherston, and we proceed to change engines, ours returning to Wellington, the one that has just climbed tbe mouutain on the other side being required to take- us down safely, for there is this difference in the gradient— we came up to where we u6w are, 1235 feet above the level of the sea, by an ascent 17 miles long; we are going to make the descent on the other sido in two miles and a half ! The steepest grade we have yet accomplished was one in thirty ; what we have before us is one in - fifteen, and to get Tip and down this in safety the system known as Fell's, which was used on the first Mont Cenis railway, is necessary. This consists of the addition of a third rail, made of steel and weighing 72lbs to the yard, in the centre of the two ordinary ones, and raised nearly a foot above the ground. We have but a minute or two to spare, and we cannot do better than devote it to a 100k — the time is too short for an examination— at the monster to whose care we are about to entrust our lives and limbs. Very appropriately indeed, it is called the " Mount Egmont " for very little short of volcanic power is required for the work it has to do. This engine which weighs 28 tons is so constructed that four wheels, two on each side, are pressed hard against the centre rail horizontally, and driven by a pair of cylinders attached to the under part of the ..boiler. The locomotive, in fact, contains two engines, one driving the ordinary wheels, and the other those which press against the centre rail and so enable it to climb a grade of one iv thirteen., The warning whistle now sounds and we take our places and are off again, and to all appearances are going to run full butt at the range which, though we are at " the summit " still towers from two to three hundred feet above us, but turning a corner we see another tunnel before us. This is 29 chains long, and the highest point on the line is 24 chains from the Wellington side. When we arrive at this spot, the darkness being such aa may almost be felt, tbe train comes very nearly to a standstill, and after a pause a slight jerk runs through it from one end to the other. Nervous people begin to ask what is tbe matter, and if they could be seen would very likely look as white as the paper on which I am writing, but all fears are allayed by some one who has been on the line before assuring us that " It's all right. She's only getting a grip of the centre rail." Five chains more of darkness — but we were not suffocated this time, for " Mount Egmont " barns coke and not coal — and then we are once more in the bright daylight, and before us is a really grand sight. Away, stretching downwards and around us is a thickly wooded country, to our right and immediately below the narrow cutting on which the rails are placed and we are travelling — not more than six miles an hour, for if any speed was attained who shall say where, i when and how it could be checked — is a I precipice, how many hundreds of feet deep 1 I don't care to say. A mile or more ahead and a long long distance below we can trace tbe narrow way over which we are to pass, winding its tortuous way round spurs and along cuttings in the face of the mountain. Two spurs on this aide of the range are pierced by tunnels, the longest of which, judging by the time occupied in going through it, I reckoned to be about fifteen chains, and the cuttings, nearly all of them through the solid rock, are very numerons, and must have cost an enormous sum of money. After slowly gliding down this tremendous descent for about a quarter of an hour — not in silence, for the groaning of the train, in which every brake is screwed down hard, is incessant, and affords a melancholy accompaniment to the exclamations of wonder and delight which are so frequent from those to whom such travelling is a novelty-— the view before us begins to open, and stretching away in the distance we can see the great plains and lake of the Wairarapa. *A few minutes more and we have reached the Cross' Crqek station at fbefop.t of the.ro.njj9.

Here are engine shed?, and half a dozen cottages occupied by the engine drivers and others engaged upon the railway. There are several li nea of rail for shunting purposes, and one of these travels away towards the hillside in so curious and unexpected a direction that a stranger naturally asks what ! it is for. In reply, he is toldtbat il is "the safety valve," and the further explanation is afforded that it is only used in the event of the train having attained too great a speed in coming down the mountain, when those who are on the look out for it at the station shift the points and send it on a hill climbing expedition. We, however, have j reached the foot safely, and have come to a halt, and here we bid good bye to our tru9ty friend " Mount Egmont,*' and are once more handed over to an ordinary locomotive, which is soon carrying ua along at a rattling pace over the Wairnrnpa Plains towards Featherston, some eight miles distant. The space at j my disposal will not allow of my dwelling nt | length on this part of my trip. Suffice it to say that we arrived at Featherston, the pre- ■ sent terminus of the lino, at 11 o'clock, having been three hours and twenty minutes on the road, and that, having four hours to spend here, I was glad to avail myself of an offer kindly made by the engine driver, who said that he had to run out with a truck as far ag the Waiohiui River, seven miles distant—over which a splendid railway bridge is being built — and would give me a passage. I was much disappointed after all I had hestl of the Wairarapa Plains with the quality of the land through which the line passes. So thickly covered is it with stones that it gives one the idea of having been created for the special purpose of supplying ballast for the railway I waa told, however, that this was by no means a fair specimen of the land, which on the opposite side of the Valley is of the most fertile description. We left Featherston on the return at 3.30, and upon arriving at Cross' Creek station " Mount I^gmont " took up a position behind us and shoved the train up the mountain. The quarter mites are marked on the incline, and I found we passed them every 1\ minutes, excepting in one case when we were three minutes in covering the distance. We reached Wellington about seven, got into a cab and drove to the wharf and stepped on board tht Kennedy, which had steam up and made a start as soon as we got on board, and next morning we were home again, having, in a little over 24 hours, travelled from Wellington into the % Wairarapa and back, and across the Straits* to Nelson. I have now made what I fearjs but a very feeble attempt to give some idea of a most delightful trip, which I would strongly recommend to anyone who has two or three days to spare, and is desirous of seeing one of the grandest triumphs of engineering skill of which the colony can boast. F. ■

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