#4093
New Zealand British Rail Mark 2 carriage
🇳🇿 New Zealand ·built by British Rail Engineering Limited· from 1971· Railway coach
_-_Wellington_(cropped).jpg)
2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. WAB 794 train near Woodville: The original uploader was J.christianson at English Wikipedia .· CC BY-SA 2.5
- 2. DC 4692 - Wairarapa Connection (SE Cars) - Wellington (cropped): nzsteam· CC BY 2.0
what is it?
The New Zealand British Rail Mark 2 carriages were built by British Rail Engineering Limited for British Rail in the early 1970s. From the mid-1990s, 150 were exported to New Zealand. After being rebuilt, refurbished and re-gauged, they entered service with a variety of operators on New Zealand's railway network.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 55 years ago, in 1971.
- Top speed is 1.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 15 minutes.
- Weighs about as much as 5 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 19.7 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Still in service after 55 years.
carriage / wagon: Unpowered passenger coaches or freight wagons, pulled by a locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1971
- in service from
- 1971
- status
- in service
- number built
- 1,876
- kind
- carriage / wagon
- origin
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- builders
- British Rail Engineering Limited
- operators
- KiwiRail, The Great Journeys of New Zealand, Transdev Wellington, Transdev Auckland
- top speed
- 160 km/h
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,067 mm Cape gauge
- length
- 19.7 m
- weight
- 29.3 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7015247, Wikipedia: New Zealand British Rail Mark 2 carriage (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.