This painting shows the Canterbury provincial railways locomotive ‘Pilgrim’ during its historic first journey at Ferrymead in December 1863. Painted by the renowned rail artist W.W. Stewart
New Zealand’s earliest railways were built by South Island provincial governments so that people and goods could travel more easily between ports and the towns they served.
In Christchurch, the choice of journey facing settlers was between the bridle path over the hill between Lyttelton and the town or boats which sailed around the coast and up the Heathcote River. A steamer service was introduced, but to settlers accustomed to the benefits rail had brought to the United Kingdom, wanted more.
The first railway line to carry passengers in a train pulled by a locomotive connected Christchurch to the Heathcote River at Ferrymead. It was a stop-gap measure while a tunnel was built through the Port Hills to Lyttelton.
The seven-kilometre line was officially opened on 1 December 1863. An imported British-built tank engine, Pilgrim, pulled the train and according to the London Illustrated News, “the event, as may be supposed, was one of no ordinary interest to the province and drew together a large number of inhabitants.
“Trains continued to run up and down throughout the day and afforded gratuitous rides as well as immense amusement to crowds of colony-bred young people to whom a ride in a railway train was perhaps a novelty.”
This engraving, published in the Illustrated London News in 1864, depicts the 1863 opening of the railway linking Christchurch with Ferrymead. It was the first public railway, not just in Canterbury but in New Zealand.
The Christchurch–Ferrymead line was made redundant by the opening of the Lyttelton tunnel in December 1867.
This stone marks the site of the Ferrymead wharf and railway station, built in 1863 for New Zealand’s first railway line.
