Description
Due to its popularity a small print run of Railway Houses of New Zealand has been published and is available for sale.
As New Zealand Railways pushed the rail network about New Zealand, opening up new country for development, a challenge presented itself to house railwaymen in country areas where infrastructure didn’t exist or was newly formed. Railways only alternative was to construct houses for their employees. Initially part of the Public Works Department responsibilities, eventually an Architectural Branch within New Zealand Railways was formed under George Troup. This development lead to new designs of railway houses, a design that was to become symbolic in the New Zealand landscape. To manufacture these houses, Railways set up a sawmill and special factory in Frankton, kit-setting houses, delivering them by rail as parts packs and ultimately erecting them about the country. As well as far-flung reaches of the railway system, Railways ended up developing ‘model” railway settlements at places as diverse as Otahuhu, Newmarket, Frankton, Te Kuiti, Taumarunui, Ohakune, Taihape, Palmerston North, Napier, Eastown, Kaiwharawhara, Christchurch, Arthur’s Pass, Otira, Dunedin and other places around the country. This book closes with Government’s exit from railway house ownership in the 1990’s and a chapter on the railway house survivors. Complementing the text is a lavish selection of black and white and colour images from the era and current day. Railway houses and the nearby railway environment are extensively featured.
Landscape format, 72 black and white and 84 colour illustrations, 16 diagrams, 142 pages, soft bound.
Author: Bruce Shalders. Publisher: NZ Railway and Locomotive Society.
