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Description
Yes, I'm still alive. Just busy working, saving the world, trying not to murder students who hand in abysmal project reports and repairing things that are broken, be it precision magnetometers or colour laser printers. Family issues still persist and got worse in some ways, but that's stuff that I don't want to elaborate on too much.

Decided to finally start editing some of my older shots, including those taken during my epic voyage to Australia and New Zealand. Shown here is the underground station of the Britomart Transport Centre in Auckland, with an ADL class DMU revving up its prime mover as it accelerates away from the platform. Ten such trainsets were manufactured in the 1980s for Transperth Trains for the use on Perth's urban passenger rail system. Following the electrification of the Perth rail network, they were rendered surplus, and in 1993, all were sold, along with the older ADK/ADB class, to New Zealand Rail, replacing the previously used suburban trains. In 1993, prior to being privatised, New Zealand Rail sold the class to the Auckland Regional Council, who refurbished all of them by 2003. These days, Transdev Auckland operates these DMUs on Auckland's suburban rail network.

However, they are probably going to face the same enemy here as they faced in Australia, namely electrification. Due to the ageing secondhand diesel fleet being somewhat less reliable than desired, and due to electric trains being cheaper to operate in the long run, a large scale electrification project is currently underway, which will lead to some of these trains being replaced by New Zealand AM class EMUs that are currently being built and tested, with the first unit having been delivered just last year.

This station is quite interesting in many respects, and talking about all the details will make this overly long description even longer. Apart from an intricate ventilation system to deal with diesel fumes, its design incorporates many aspects of New Zealand's heritage, be it the woven stainless steel ceiling cover representing Māori arts and crafts, or the round skylights (when seen from below) looking very much like volcanoes, representing the country's high volcanic activity. This fairly modern station was opened on the 25th of July 2003 by Sir Edmund Hillary, with a lot of work having been done behind the scenes recently to prepare everything for the installation of overhead wires in the forthcoming years.

The keen observer will also have noticed that those are not regular but in fact cap gauge tracks, which is just a bit wider than meter gauge at 1067 millimeters. This is due to the fact that while being cheaper, it also made it easier to build railways in the mountainous terrain in the country's interior.

Description
Yes, I'm still alive. Just busy working, saving the world, trying not to murder students who hand in abysmal project reports and repairing things that are broken, be it precision magnetometers or colour laser printers. Family issues still persist and got worse in some ways, but that's stuff that I don't want to elaborate on too much.

Decided to finally start editing some of my older shots, including those taken during my epic voyage to Australia and New Zealand. Shown here is the underground station of the Britomart Transport Centre in Auckland, with an ADL class DMU revving up its prime mover as it accelerates away from the platform. Ten such trainsets were manufactured in the 1980s for Transperth Trains for the use on Perth's urban passenger rail system. Following the electrification of the Perth rail network, they were rendered surplus, and in 1993, all were sold, along with the older ADK/ADB class, to New Zealand Rail, replacing the previously used suburban trains. In 1993, prior to being privatised, New Zealand Rail sold the class to the Auckland Regional Council, who refurbished all of them by 2003. These days, Transdev Auckland operates these DMUs on Auckland's suburban rail network.

However, they are probably going to face the same enemy here as they faced in Australia, namely electrification. Due to the ageing secondhand diesel fleet being somewhat less reliable than desired, and due to electric trains being cheaper to operate in the long run, a large scale electrification project is currently underway, which will lead to some of these trains being replaced by New Zealand AM class EMUs that are currently being built and tested, with the first unit having been delivered just last year.

This station is quite interesting in many respects, and talking about all the details will make this overly long description even longer. Apart from an intricate ventilation system to deal with diesel fumes, its design incorporates many aspects of New Zealand's heritage, be it the woven stainless steel ceiling cover representing Māori arts and crafts, or the round skylights (when seen from below) looking very much like volcanoes, representing the country's high volcanic activity. This fairly modern station was opened on the 25th of July 2003 by Sir Edmund Hillary, with a lot of work having been done behind the scenes recently to prepare everything for the installation of overhead wires in the forthcoming years.

The keen observer will also have noticed that those are not regular but in fact cap gauge tracks, which is just a bit wider than meter gauge at 1067 millimeters. This is due to the fact that while being cheaper, it also made it easier to build railways in the mountainous terrain in the country's interior.