Bay Express

The Bay Express was a passenger train between Wellington and Napier in New Zealand's North Island, operating from Monday, 11 December 1989 until Sunday, 7 October 2001. It was operated by New Zealand Railways, later Tranz Scenic.

The Bay Express was preceded by the Endeavour, which ran the same route from 1972 until 1989. The Endeavour started service with upgraded carriages and a buffet car, but in August 1981 these were diverted to the North Island Main Trunk as the Blue Fern and replaced by carriages of a lesser quality without a buffet car. The introduction of the Bay Express was intended to return the standard of Hawkes Bay passenger services back to their former level.

The train's consist comprised two modular guards vans converted into power-luggage vans with 11 kW petrol generators at the handbrake ends (one from Mitsubishi, Japan, the other from Daewoo, Korea) and three 1930s-built NZR 56-foot carriages, one a former red Picton/Greymouth car extensively rebuilt into a servery and rear view observation car with 24 seats, arranged alcove-style around tables. The seats were Addington Workshops-built and installed in this car for the Picton/Greymouth runs, reupholstered with a slight alteration made to facilitate more comfort on the head and neck. The train included two of three remaining Endeavour cars, each seating 51 in the same seat type and format with large viewing windows like those on the TranzAlpine. The last car of the consist featured a large observation window at the rear. A new form of pressure-ventilation was installed in all three carriages, with associated ceiling-mounted trunking to filter the air throughout each car.

The train attracted good patronage and, from 1993 onward, the odd Northerner car or two, a thoroughly refurbished Auckland excursion car and later a thoroughly refurbished Wairarapa Connection car, the Auckland excursion modular van with a 37.5-kW generator housed in the non handbrake end module, the first and third modular NIMT 11-kW power-luggage vans were frequently being used to bolster this service.

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