Rimutaka Incline

Film (Full Length) – 1991

Cross Creek Loco Depot was more than just a shed where H Class Fell Engines lived. Here, men kept locomotives alive by sheer naked cunning, for the Rimutaka Incline was always a place of torture.
– Narrator

You didn't dare leave any bare skin exposed. Exhaust steam would come in under the door and in any cranny that it could. And we just suffered it out until we were through the tunnel.
– Fireman Bill Olsen, on driving a Fell Engine through the Rimutaka Summit Tunnel

When we got to Siberia there was a sort of howl and screech, and then we felt ourselves lifted up off the line and as we fell over the embankment our carriage seemed suddenly to blow to atoms and we rolled down 300 feet to the bottom. One boy had a fearful scalp wound, and his elder brother had his brain scooped clear out.
– A recollection of an 1880 incident on the 'Siberia' portion of the Rimutaka Incline, caused by high winds