Scenic Daylight

The Scenic Daylight was a short-lived daytime express train in New Zealand that operated between Auckland and Wellington along the North Island Main Trunk Railway. It commenced in 1963 and was replaced in 1968 by the Blue Streak.

Introduction

The Scenic Daylight was preceded by the Daylight Limited, a steam-hauled service that operated primarily at the Christmas and Easter peak seasons; only the overnight Night Limited ran outside peak travel periods. However, as dieselisation of North Island railway lines progressed swiftly in the 1950s and 1960s, the decision was taken to replace the Daylight Limited with a diesel-hauled service that ran all year. Year-round daylight running was motivated in part by a strategy to attract tourist travellers with the scenery in the central North Island and was one of the New Zealand Railways Department's first attempts to capitalise on the tourist market, and the Scenic Daylight was introduced in 1963.

Operation

The Scenic Daylight typically consisted of DA class diesel-electric locomotives and 56' seating cars that had been built around World War II. As dining cars had been removed from New Zealand's railways as an economy measure during World War I and never re-introduced, the train made refreshment stops in Frankton and Taumarunui. Due to the power of the DA locomotives, the service operated to a faster timetable than the Daylight Limited.

Replacement

In 1968 an RM class 88-seater railcar was refurbished and repainted in a distinctive blue scheme that led to it being nicknamed the Blue Streak. It initially operated an unsuccessful service between Hamilton and Auckland in early 1968, and was transferred to the Auckland-Wellington run on 23 September 1968. It initially ran in tandem with the Scenic Daylight, with the railcar operating from Wellington to Auckland on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and returning the next day, with all other services operated by the Scenic Daylight. For the peak Christmas/New Year season, a second 88-seater was renovated into a Blue Streak and the Scenic Daylight was fully replaced, with a third Blue Streak introduced in 1969. Regular carriage expresses were not operated on the North Island Main Trunk until the 1991 introduction of the Overlander, although the Blue Fern operated during parts of the 1980s.