Railway employee records early 1950s?

[ValJJJ]

Apologies if I've missed this in resources, but is there an archive anywhere of NZ railway workers in the 1900s, particularly 1916-1940s please?

Thanks.
Val

[KiwiPeter]

Contact the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society

A large collection of Railway Department correspondence files is held at Ava.
 (These are in addition to those held by National Archives at various locations throughout New Zealand. A register of such files is held by the Society.)

[ValJJJ]

Thanks KiwiPeter, I shall contact them.

Val

[spades]

Hi Val,

In the past I have looked through the yearly staff list books of Railway Department staff. Staff are listed by department and then seniority, and then occupation, and only by surname and initials.

From my experience it was very time-consuming to trawl though these books, each containing thousands of names, so if you can also provide your researcher an approximate date of joining or leaving the department and his specific occupation it will help a great deal.

Spades

[KiwiPeter]

Yes, those books are called the D3, a very important tool when applying for jobs, so you knew who else was ahead you etc...

Been there and done that. Normal staff never got to see any other staff lists to be honest.
I am sure there was such things, and most it would have been entered in a Computer.
Railways was quite early into entering things in databases etc. But you need to also remember that the Railways in one form or another has been around since the 1870s,

I am a member of quite a few Railway type groups on Facebook, so I think that's the first place one should start,

[KiwiPeter]

OK, further to this, I placed a request for information on one the NZ rail groups I am a member of on Facebook. Here is an answer......

The D3 lists were the main lists, and they started in 1895. We do have some old staff registers in the NZRLS archive, but they are far from a complete set. Those old manual staff registers generally peter out in the 1910s.

So yes the NZRLS at Ava in Wellington would be the place to start, I assume you looked on Archway (NZ ARCHIVES)

[ValJJJ]

Thanks KiwiPeter and Spades.  I'll pass this info on to the NZ family concerned.  I also looked at the NZ Railway and Locomotive Soc and followed a few links on that website to local groups and heritage railway groups so that is also useful, if not for employees, for insight into the railway development in Northland.

[KiwiPeter]

yes, there are a lot of books and booklets written about NZ rail, and north land etc. I think I have them all if something is needed.

[ValJJJ]

Thanks for the offer of info from your books KiwiPeter.

More information has just come to light on questioning older relatives and it turns out that the job was an engine driver, but not on the main lines.  And that his occupation was only train-related from 1957 onwards.  So I have changed the heading of this post for any future viewers.

He was a sidings shunter at Westfield, moving wagons for various factories that were there. Apparently he also worked for the Otamatea county council as a grader driver (whatever that is!  I imagine road rather than rail?).

So would a shunter in an industrial sidings setting be a railway employee or an employee of the sidings yard?