Rimutaka Tunnel fire suppression equipment, following the Pike River Mine disaster enquiry. Initially New Zealand DC class locomotives were used for the Wairarapa Connection, then from 2015 the DFB version of the New Zealand DF class locomotive (1979). The tunnel is used for freight from the Wairarapa to Wellington, notably logs from local pine forests and wood products from the Juken New Zealand Ltd timber mill at Waingawa, just south of Masterton. Rimutaka Tunnel The Rimutaka Tunnel (officially Tunnel 2, Wairarapa Line) is a railway tunnel through New Zealand's Remutaka Range, between Maymorn, near Upper Hutt, and Featherston, on the Wairarapa Line.
Wairarapa Line North Island Main Trunk section between Wellington and Palmerston North. The line originally included the famous Rimutaka Incline, which used the Fell mountain railway system to cross the Rimutaka Range between Upper Hutt and Featherston. In the mid-1950s, the line between Petone and Featherston was substantially realigned, with the line diverted to the east of the Hutt River between Petone and Haywards to serve new housing developments in northern Lower Hutt, and the construction of the Rimutaka Tunnel to replace the Rimutaka Incline. Part of the former route west of the Hutt River has been retained as the Melling Branch.