Re: Auckland (NZ) Regional Council okays waterfront tram
  Roderick Smith

I enclose the last two which I have scanned.
One from the rear of the depot shows a crane, which may be a location
feature.
The other shows the waterfront railway tracks, in the area which is now the
forecourt to the maritime museum, and access to yuppie apartments and the
yacht harbour.

Acting on Bryce's message, I flew over the current Gaunt St Depot using
Google Earth. The roofline is quite different, but that could simply be the
result of replacing old-style amenities with modern ones.
I went back to the whole box of slides.
Our BA 747 in Melbourne, then in Auckland.
The airport bus at the airport.
The train shunting along Quay St: probably a fluke, and we had just alighted
from the airport bus there.
A whole set at the station, as we cloaked luggage and picked up our
reservations for Northerner that night.
We then hired a car.
It seems that we did drive to the west side of the bascule bridge, which was
open all day. I suspect that it was only ever lowered when a train was to
pass. In that era, it was the only access to the yacht harbour; the new
opening (and perhaps a lot of the marina) was excavated later, probably for
America's cup, and certainly after rail traffic to the oil terminal had
ceased.
There are various shots of tracks on wharves, probably on the west side.
Then comes the trolleybus depot.
Then more tracks on wharves, now on the east side of the bridge.

Conclusion: the trolleybus depot which I photographed was on the Gaunt St
site.

Today, the bascule bridge remains down at all times, for access to moored
yachts. The grey counterweight shows just beyond the boats in my photo,
against the skyline, with the harbour bridge even further beyond.

That concludes my existing scans of the 1976 holiday. There is a request
for photos of Auckland station when it was working. Even at the time of my
first visit (1972), the station was sufficiently quiet that two platform
faces had been sacrificed and the pit filled in to make an access road for
people joining long-distance trains. Today, the suburban line cuts across
all platforms but one. It is retained as Strand station, used for
emergencies, about one peak-period train per day, and for charter trains.

Roderick Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

I think this is Gaunt St Depot which I understand this exists to this day.
It has been quite some time since I was in Akl so the memory is a little
rusty.
Bryce


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