Last ride on the train bound for nowhere

"It's running two and a half hours late," I say to the guy in the dairy at Britomart. "That's typical, it's been late all week," he replies, rudely.

Have a bit of heart, mate. There's nearly 100 years of history coming to an end tonight. It's the last trip of the Northerner, the overnight train between Auckland and Wellington, and it's very late leaving.

But hey, it's the end of an era so who cares? Norman Daniel doesn't care.

The train enthusiast and ex-rail worker waits patiently on the platform, resplendent in walk socks, shorts, a purple cotton jacket that he happily peels back to reveal a Tranz Alpine (the train service between Christchurch and Greymouth) T-shirt. He's over-flowing with memorabilia.

In his bag he has a set of original NZ Rail playing cards, newspaper clippings of milestones in railway history, and an "I Love Trains" badge.

He shows me the sexy Silver Star brochures that promoted the short-lived but stylish Wellington to Auckland rail service of the 1970s, and some classic black and white photos of old trains.

Norm knows trains run late and he blames the heating of the tracks for today's delay. The Overlander - the day train between Auckland and Wellington - hasn't arrived and, until it does, we can't head south. He says staff cuts on the railways means they don't have the resources to maintain the tracks adequately to cope with them overheating.

Toll NZ axed the Northerner because of a steady decline in demand for the 11-hour overnight trip since air fares became cheaper. The four carriages had hardly been populated and Toll says the service is uneconomic.

TranzScenic cabin attendant Suzanne says it's ironic that rail travel is coming back in vogue globally yet New Zealand is losing a rail service that has been running for nearly 100 years. The first overnight passenger service left Auckland on February 14, 1909, and took 19 hours.

Norm is disappointed in the public's lack of support for the overnight service, and train travel in general, but he's not surprised.

"The whole attitude of late has not been one that's been very good for the passenger."

He should know. He's ridden hundreds, if not thousands, of trains. He was on the final run of the Southerner, from Christchurch to Invercargill on February 21, 2002, and the final Bay Express from Wellington to the Hawkes Bay on October 7, 2001.

He's travelled on the Northerner about 120 times. He's passionate but not in a crackpot, obsessive kind of way. He just cares for the trains, the people who work on them and the people who ride them.

Tonight, we finally get away just after 11pm and Suzanne is on the intercom getting all sentimental about the full moon and the starry, starry nights as we make our way down the North Island.

"You are a part of New Zealand history. It's an extremely emotional and historic journey," she tells us.

Then, as an extra special touch, Suzanne and Norm break into Now Is The Hour.

UK backpacker Sally Buxton just arrived in Auckland today and is making her way to Raglan via Hamilton. The overnight train is the easiest way to get there and she can't believe what she's stumbled into.

"When they started singing I just had to text my friend in the UK," she says affectionately, "but it's times like this that you really remember when you're travelling."

There's something old school about train travel.

They still write your seat number on your boarding pass and roaming free through the carriages is encouraged. It's a great way to meet people. Tonight I meet all the TranzScenic staff (Suzanne, Graham and Bob), Norm, Sally, Mary from Epsom Girls who is going to Levin to see her sister, a travel agent who was curious about the last train journey, a travel writer, two bicycle tourists, two backpackers who would later miss their connection on the Cook Strait ferry, and a few other railway enthusiasts of whom Norm remains king.

Bob has seen hundreds of loyal regulars use the service over the years, including young Maori girls heading to boarding school at Queen Victoria College in Parnell - the rowdy element always provided a bit of entertainment.

"In the time of the sleeper cars we used to get propositioned all the time," he smirks. Bob and Suzanne were on the train when it crashed into a car on a crossing in the King Country.

"This woman had left the Te Kuiti pub and parked her car across the track. She thought she'd left it in the garage," laughs Suzanne. "We had to ferry the passengers out six by six in a little van we borrowed off one of the locals."

Riding the overnight train is like working the graveyard shift. You can't really see much for the majority of the trip. But on this journey, because we're running late, there's just enough light in the early morning to see the area near Tangiwai (8km west of Waiouru) where the overnight train plunged into the Whangaehu River, resulting in New Zealand's biggest rail disaster on Christmas Eve, 1953, with 151 people killed.

Early mornings are a good time to be nosy. Train tracks take you behind the scenes of towns such as Fielding (they have some beautiful villas there), Bunnythorpe (a Massey Ferguson tractor is for sale, sitting on a trailer ready to be taken away) and Levin (that's where the Click Clack company is based). Yes, the overnight train is a long journey.

The train's interior does need a revamp because, although the seats are comfortable, the fabric is tatty, the canteen needs a serious, cafe-style overhaul and the beer selection is horrendous.

But it's a bit late now isn't it?

Apart from a few sleepy-head hair-dos when we arrive to a beautiful sunny Wellington day at 10.10am - two and a half hours late - all the passengers look cheery.

On the platform the travel writer is taking a picture at the front of the train and, as I walk past, he says make sure I say in my story that there was no plaque, no flowers, no fanfare, no nothing when we arrived.

Good on ya Toll NZ.

Thank goodness for the Chinese man who gives our lovely hostess a box of Roses chocolates as she hands him his bag. She blushes, or is she holding back a tear?