Arthur’s Pass Snow Train: KiwiRail Ploughs the Midland Line

When heavy snow buries the railway over Arthur’s Pass, KiwiRail sends a train to push its way through. Geoff Mackley’s footage from New Zealand’s Southern Alps shows a locomotive driving into deep powder, throwing a huge white plume over the cab as it clears the line between the West Coast and Christchurch.

The Midland Line over the Southern Alps

The railway in the video is the Midland Line, which runs 212 km across the South Island between Rolleston, near Christchurch, and Greymouth on the West Coast. Building it took decades:

• 1906: trains reached a temporary terminus at Broken River, and the 72 m high Staircase Viaduct opened.
• 1914: the line reached Arthur’s Pass from the Canterbury side.
• 1923: the Otira Tunnel opened. At 8,554 m it carries trains under the main divide, and construction had started back in 1907.

Today the line carries the TranzAlpine tourist train, which runs every day of the week, and heavy coal traffic. A typical coal train uses two DX locomotives and 30 hopper wagons carrying about 1,800 tonnes.

Arthur’s Pass: snow and mountain weather

Arthur’s Pass itself sits about 920 m above sea level, and the small township of the same name lies at about 740 m, 5 km south of the pass. The route is named after Arthur Dudley Dobson, who explored it in 1864 for Canterbury’s chief surveyor, Thomas Cass. State Highway 73 crosses the pass alongside the railway, linking Christchurch with the West Coast.

Winter storms can dump deep snow on the main divide. On a railway, that snow is a real obstacle: it fills cuttings, buries signals and hides the rails. Pushing it aside quickly keeps freight and passenger services moving.

Watching the train plough through deep snow

In the video, the bridge, the signal posts and the rail corridor are the reference points. Watch one of them as the train approaches and you can judge how deep the snow is. At the front, the locomotive pushes a growing wall of powder until it bursts sideways and over the cab, then settles to reveal a narrow cleared path behind. The cleared line looks tiny against the white valley around it.

Visiting Arthur’s Pass and the national park

Arthur’s Pass National Park was established in 1929, the third national park in New Zealand. The township, home to about 30 people, is a base for tramping and day walks, and a stop on the TranzAlpine between Christchurch and Greymouth. Keep an eye out for the kea, New Zealand’s mischievous mountain parrot, which lives in the area.

Plan ahead in winter: check KiwiRail and road reports before you travel, as snow can close the pass or delay trains.

Related reading

• clearing a road through Tateyama’s snow walls
• The Albula and Bernina Railways: Read the Engineering in the Alpine View
• The Arctic Light: Lofoten’s Long Spring Twilight
• Chilean Andes Snowboarding: Funner Filete
• Snowboarding and Freestyle in Finnish Lapland
• Valdez Heli-Skiing: H2O Guides in the Chugach
• The Khumbu Icefall through Theodore Fairhurst’s Helmet Camera
• More New Zealand stories

Sources