Wellington Cable Car Museum - What's On Display

Wellington in the 1890s was the fastest growing city in New Zealand. Its expanding workforce wanted to live close to the busy shops and offices of Lambton Quay, but such residences were scarce. At the same time, the hills directly above the city centre remained sparsely settled farms or scrubland.

In 1898, the Upland Estate Company was formed by a group of enterprising individuals to address the capital's housing shortage. However, in order for this venture to succeed, a quick transport link to the city centre was essential. Given the steep incline, a cable tramway was deemed the best option. Thus in July 1898, Upland Estate Company shareholders were instrumental in forming The Kelburn & Karori Tramway Company Ltd., an ambitious new enterprise that aimed to provide a cable car service between Lambton Quay and Kelburn, with connecting horse-drawn carriages to the borough of Karori.


Top: Engineer James Fulton's 1898 Plan - Graham Stewart Collection Bottom: Preparing the track, c. 1901 - Graham Stewart Collection

A major engineering feat
    The cable car system, designed by Dunedin-born engineer James Fulton, was a major milestone in New Zealand engineering. It was 785 metres in length, rose over 119 metres (390 feet) at an average grade of 1 in 5.1, and passed through three tunnels and over three viaducts. A journey from the Lambton Quay terminus to the top of the hill at the north end of Upland Road took about three and a half minutes, with three intermediate stops at Clifton Terrace, Talavera Terrace and Salamanca Road.
    Beside the upper terminus was a two-storey power house which included winding gear, a steam engine, garage and workshop, as well as a boiler house with a 19 metre-high smokestack. Slightly further down the incline, a windmill pumped the water, essential for running the steam engine.
   Calling on all of Fulton's considerable engineering skills, the cable car system represented a significant and enduring achievement. Prior to its construction, travelling from the flat city centre to the hilly Upland Farm area was via a muddy track through the Botanical Gardens; a much longer and more tiring experience.

How it worked
    A steam engine powered the cable winding gear. This drove an endless wire rope (or haulage cable) that operated alternatively up one line of track and down the other.
   The winding gear was originally operated by an engineer in the winding room, in response to bell signals from the car drivers. A gripper lever in the descending cable car gripped the cable. As this car was pulled down the slope, a second cable called the tail, or balance, rope (this was independent of the haulage cable and attached to both cars) hauled the ascending car up the slope. The ascending and descending cable cars were thereby counterbalanced. When the respective cars reached top and bottom, the rope came to a halt.
    Fulton's system was thus technically a funicular, but also used the true cable tram grippers. The cars had a wooden block brake, an iron or shoe brake and a fell emergency brake on a central rail. The balance rope provided added safety protection in the event of a break in the haulage cable. These features combined to make the cable cars a very safe way to travel.


	The windmill and cable car, c. 1903 - Alexander Turnbull Library

Picks, shovels and perseverance
    The challenging task of turning Fulton's plans into a working cable tramway began in 1899. For 2½ years, gangs of men (including prisoners from the Terrace Gaol) laboured night and day wielding picks, shovels and wheelbarrows to construct three tunnels and three viaducts and to lay the required 39 chains of cable track.
    In December 1901, a case for compensation was laid against the company by a Mrs. Jack, who owned a property above one of the tunnels under construction. Nightly blasting operations had caused cracks in the walls of her house, and left its occupants "greatly disturbed". In June, a concrete retaining wall had collapsed causing substantial subsidence on the same property.
   Yet despite this and other setbacks, including several slips in the tunnels and the late arrival of the cable and rails from England, the cable car system was completed by early 1902 and ready to convey its first passengers up the hill to Kelburn.

First run: 22 February 1902
Wellington residents flocked to try out the cable car service when it opened for business on 22 February 1902. Interest and enthusiasm for the new facility proved so great that an estimated 4,000 people were carried up and down the line over the opening weekend. As the first sections in Kelburn were to be sold four days later, intending purchasers were offered free passes.
Once at the upper terminus, many people took the opportunity to ride on one of the connecting horse-drawn buses to Karori. Others walked down to the city again via Mitchelltown and Polhill Gully, or strolled through the Botanic Gardens and then back into town by way of Tinakori Road.