Author(s): Bruce Shalders

Architecture Design

The previously untold story of New Zealand’s iconic railway houses, of which more than 3,700 are dotted around the New Zealand landscape. As New Zealand Railways pushed the rail network about New Zealand, opening new country for development, a challenge presented itself to house railwaymen in country areas where infrastructure didn’t exist or was newly formed. Railways only alternative was to construct houses for their employees. Initially part of the Public Works Department responsibilities, eventually an Architectural Branch within New Zealand Railways was formed under George Troup. This development lead to new designs of railway houses, a design that was to become symbolic in the New Zealand landscape.