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.
Rimutaka Incline 13 September 1871. Julius Vogel, Colonial Treasurer, travelled to England to raise finance for a major public works programme for railway construction. Vogel returned via the United States, where he studied rail systems. After the act of parliament was passed, a survey party set out to make preliminary investigations of possible routes for a railway over the Rimutaka Range (spelled Rimutaka Range, since 2017). These were complete by December 1870, the party having investigated four routes. A commonality between all the proposals was the section from Upper Hutt to Kaitoki (later Kaitoke). Between Kaitoke and the Wairarapa, the four proposals