New Plymouth Express

The New Plymouth Express was a passenger express train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) between Wellington and New Plymouth. It ran from 1886 until 1955 and was sometimes known as the New Plymouth Mail due to the Railway Travelling Post Office carriages included in its consist. The Express was notable amongst NZR's provincial expresses as being both the first and, until the commencement of the Gisborne Express in 1942, the longest in distance travelled.

On 23 March 1885, NZR opened the railway line between Palmerston North and New Plymouth, with a short branch from Aramoho to Wanganui. A year and a half later, on 3 November 1886, the privately owned Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company opened from Wellington to Longburn, a small village just south of Palmerston North, where it interchanged with NZR. This allowed a direct train to be run between Wellington and New Plymouth; this also formed part of a newer, quicker route to Auckland through connections with steamers between New Plymouth and Auckland's Onehunga Wharf.

The earliest incarnation of the Express took 14 hours 50 minutes to complete its journey, with a change of trains at Longburn. It began operating from the start of December 1886 and ran twice weekly. Its northbound run left the WMR's Thorndon station in Wellington at 7am on Tuesdays and Fridays, with NZR's southbound service departing New Plymouth at the same time; the two trains met at Longburn, where passengers had to change. The WMR introduced dining cars not long after it began operating, but NZR trains made refreshment stops at Halcombe and Patea.

In 1901, NZR and the WMR co-operated to accelerate the train by eliminating the change of trains at Longburn. By this stage, the train ran every day except Sunday, and on four days a week NZR's train ran all the way through to Wellington, while on the other two days the WMR's train ran to New Plymouth. This cut the travelling time down to 12 hours and 50 minutes, and in 1902, NZR eliminated refreshment stops by introducing dining cars of its own. The Express was the second train in New Zealand to be equipped with dining cars, after the South Express, and thus the first in the North Island.

...
Wikipedia