Trainspotting in Wellington, New Zealand - 13/07/2020

(Day 3 of 5)

The Hutt Valley line is the name given to the electrified section of track between Wellington and Upper Hutt. It's technically part of the Wairarapa Line, in that some trains continue north of Upper Hutt and as far as Masterton. These are the 'Wairarapa Connection' services, and they're all hauled by DFB locomotives. All electric services are run by the Matangi stock.

Although technically a seperate service, the Melling branch is included in the Hutt Valley Line timetable. This service runs from Wellington to Melling; sharing tracks with the Hutt Valley/Wairarapa services as far as Petone. From there, they branch off to go down a single-track line that runs parallel to State Highway 2 for its entire length.

On this day - July 13th - I went to Wellington station in the morning and spent an hour or so there filming trains. Then I went off to Woburn on a Matangi. But when I got to Woburn, I forgot to open the door and let myself off, which resulted in me having to get off the train at Waterloo station instead. Despite this, I still managed to do some filming at Woburn station.

After all this nonsense, I went off to Petone to do some more filming before going all the way to Upper Hutt. From there, I did not continue on to Masterton. Instead, I went back down the line to Ngauranga, which is right next to Wellington Harbour.

Once I was finished with Ngauranga, I went back into Wellington then out to Johnsonville for some lunch. Good thing there was a little sushi shop in the shopping centre next to the station. Then it was back down the line to Wellington, and from there I went and explored the Melling branch. This was followed by another round of filming at Petone before heading back to Wellington.

Some of the stations features in this video are ones that I had never filmed at until July 13th. These previously un-filmed stations were:

Waterloo
Petone
Ngauranga
Western Hutt

Most of what we'll see in this video are the Matangi units, but I was also able to film a number of DFB's on both the Capital Connection and Wairarapa Connection services. The former goes to Palmerston North.