Stop the Train! I Want to Get On

Graham Hutchins fell in love with trains at an early age. As a youngster growing up in the railway town of Te Kuiti, he would gaze on the steaming monsters as they thundered through the King Country. Before long, train travel became more than a pastime, more than a fascination: he was hooked. As he recounts in this book, he was just ten years old when he undertook a journey alone on the night train to Auckland. From then on he travelled as much as he could, and later as a young man searched out the smaller forgotten lines to experience what they had to offer.


Stop the Train! I want to get on describes his experiences travelling throughout New Zealand on regular passenger trains, railcars, goods trains and work trains. The routes he traverses include the Central Otago line, the Gisborne Railcar, the Southerner to Invercargill, a mixed train through rural Taranaki, a workers’ train from Greymouth on the Rewanui Incline, the Endeavour to Hawke’s Bay, the Silver Fern Railcar and more. Many services have now been axed, but he vividly recalls their delights, from the scenery outside to the often primitive conditions inside and the people he encounters along the way. He also tells many engaging tales about the history of the lines and what makes each so distinctive. Sometimes alone, on other occasions with his wife Jenny or his mate Russell, he conveys the unique experience and sheer pleasure of rail travel in every corner of New Zealand, from the 1950s to the present day.


‘Some people take to the bottle, others go shopping. I jump on a train, if I can find one, and wait for the swish and sway to take me away. Away from the down times. For me the diversion comes as much from the rhythm as the passing landscapes from the train window.’


Graham Hutchins remembers the incredibly varied journeys he has taken by train throughout New Zealand. They have given him a lifetime of pleasure.

Night trains and The Northerner

The Midland Line: Christchurch to the West Coast

The Gisborne Railcar

The Central Otago Line: Alexandra to Dunedin

The Picton–Christchurch Railcar

The Silver Star: Auckland to Wellington

Greymouth to Rewanui and back

By mixed train on the Stratford to Okahukura Line

Hamilton to Mount Maunganui

The Silver Fern Railcar on the Main Trunk Line

The Endeavour: Wellington to Napier

The Southerner: Christchurch to Invercargill

The Northern Explorer


Graham Hutchins has been a train enthusiast all his life and has written several popular books on the subject, including Great New Zealand Railway Journeys and Last Train to Paradise. From his home base in the Waikato and King Country, he has travelled extensively on trains throughout New Zealand, Australia, the United States and elsewhere. He has also written on a range of other subjects, including rugby, cricket and popular music: his book about the Beatles’ tour of New Zealand, Eight Days a Week, is available as an ebook. Married with two daughters and two grandsons, Graham is a full-time writer living in Hamilton.