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Waitoa Containers 1

This reskin was made by copying and pasting photographs of one of the containers aboard the Waitoa shunt. My DSG 4060 reskin is used in the preview screenshot just for decoration. This locomotive has worked on the Waitoa Line a few times over the past 10 years. I have an idea bubbling around in my head about someday making the Waitoa Line for Rolling Line. I can't make any promises on whether or not I will make it, because once you've made a promise you can't break it. And I don't want to run the risk of promising I'll make the line, only to end up going back on said promise after realising I can't do it.

The Waitoa line is a rural railway line in the Waikato, one of the provinces in the North Island of New Zealand. The line runs from the junction at Morrinsville to the village of Waitoa, where a large dairy factory - operated by Fonterra - is located. This line used to be part of both the East Coast Main Trunk and Thames Branch. The original ECMT shared tracks with the Thames branch as far as Paeroa, where it took a different route and ran through to Tauranga via the Karangahake Gorge. This route closed in 1978, and was replaced by the Kaimai Tunnel. However the 6.5 kilometres from Waihi to Waikino was saved for preservation, and still operates today as the Goldfields Railway. The Thames Branch was used to transport car parts to the Toyota plant in Thames, and take the finished cars to other towns around the North Island. This operation was given the axe in 1991, when Toyota started assembling their cars in Japan. As such, the Morrinsville to Thames branch was closed. However, the line was reopened as far as Waitoa in 2004, to serve the Fonterra plant.

As of November 2018, KiwiRail still run at least two trains a day to Waitoa, transporting dairy products (probably milk powder, since the wagons are not refrigerated) around the country. The typical motive power for this line is usually DC class locomotives, as the track is not able to take the weight of anything heavier. Fairly recently - on the 16th of November 2018 - I paid a visit to the Waitoa Line - one of many visits might I add. This was the first time I had actually seen a train on the line, and DC 4058 was doing the honours.

The DC started out from Waitoa with just five wagons in tow. Once at Morrinsville, she had to wait for a mainline train - hauled by DL 9469 - to pass through. After the DL went past, the DC added at least twelve more wagons to her train, making seventeen in total. Once the DC was done shunting, she headed off towards Hamilton.

To add, I also captured some footage of the Waitoa Shunt on the outskirts of Morrinsville, which you can find on my YouTube Channel. It's the same username that I have here on Steam.