Whakarongo, New Zealand
A Time of Transition: Errata & Addenda
(The following glitches were discovered in A Time of Transition after it had been printed. Normally they are compressed together in about 8. and attached to the available space on page 117)
P.10: Photo caption: “right” should be “left”. The tablet office probably dates to 1903.
P.12: Photo caption: The ongoing T.E. Signal Box tablet machines saga now reveals that they were moved to the north P.N. Signal Box when the former closed in 1959. The photo was taken, therefore, at the latter place. CTC replaced them on 11 July 1960.
P.13: (1st para.) Although unconfirmed, probably Whakarongo became a holiday switch tablet station in 1903, when the electric tablet system began on that section of line. The station’s extension occurred then too. It remained an unattended flag station until 1925, thereafter becoming a switch-out tablet station with a tablet porter in charge.
P.14: The N.Z. Herald (8/1/1954), NZR’s Staff Bulletin (Jan/Feb 1954), and the NZ Railway Observer (Supplement No. 3, Sept. 1954: 8-9), advise that the Royal Train made six unscheduled stops between Hastings and P.N. Causes were crowd control problems at Hastings. The pilot train killed four pedigree Jersey cows at a farm crossing between Clive and Hastings, causing a 10-minute delay to the Royal Train north of Opapa. The former had not left the section of track ahead of the Royal Train, when the latter was ready to enter it. This reoccurred north of Takapau. Mechanical failure by tablet transfer equipment caused the others. These incidents occurred at Makotuku, Ashhurst and (as this book documents) Whakarongo. Until then (the Queen’s first N.Z. rail journey), only steam locomotives had used the transfer equipment at these stations. The diesel’s recovery gear had also proven faulty.
P.18: (4th Para.) McLennan’s source for this paragraph is unknown. Gordon Bennett adds that the track gang were working elsewhere on the line, but were at Park’s crossing using the track-side phone to locate Gordon’s train, when it appeared around the corner.
Also: Vanished are the apostrophes from the photo caption on p.33, ‘…1881 “end of the building”…’ from the top photo caption on p. 44, and the title ‘Index’ from p.110.
Last Updated: 23/7/2001