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Railways of New Zealand
The railway pages of Patrick Dunford
NZ Railway Yahoo Discussion Groups
The first email lists for New Zealand railfans were created under the Onelist system in 1998. nz_railchat, in operation since 1998, is primarily for railway modellers with the proviso that any railway topic is acceptable. In 1999, several broader groups were created, including NZRailways and Wekapassrailway. The latter became nztrain_nutts and is now called Railway_Preservation_News. NZRailways closed down in 2003.
The operating structure of such groups is very different from traditional railfan societies in countries like NZ. Groups of the latter style frequently become incorporated according to legal requirements in order to acquire protection in areas of financial responsibility. As most email based chat groups tend to operate under free hosting, these issues often do not arise. Likewise, Yahoo does not require or dictate any particular standard of administrative accountability upon any group that it hosts.
The major operating groups of interest to railfans that are relevant to discussions about New Zealand railway subjects are listed below. All are hosted on Yahoo Groups, which took over Egroups, who in turn absorbed Onelist. Most have a restricted membership policy requiring application. A few have publicly visible archives and/or allow unrestricted public contributions. The difficulty of changing a group's name as its purposes change means that the names of some of the groups no longer reflects their current focus.
Major groups currently operating in NZ
General Groups
Newzealandlocomotives: Currently, this is the largest group in NZ in membership terms, exceeding 600. Typically it receives 500 - 1000 messages per month. Formed in 2002, the original function of the group was to discuss motive power on New Zealand rail lines, although it has since expanded to a more general role. It has the most open membership of the general groups due to a non-political focus.
Tranzrailphotographers: The highest volume group in NZ with traffic exceeding 1000 messages per month, it was founded in 2000 and has membership in excess of 550. The group now functions as a discussion forum for a wide range of NZ railway related topics. It is focused around a politically strategic alliance between rail industry employees and railfans.
Specialised Groups
NZHT-Rail: Founded in 2001, it currently has a membership total over 300 and receives around 500 messages per month. The group mainly focuses on heritage and tourist railways and has remained within that specific area of interest ever since. The list owner since inception is the present chairperson of the Federation of Rail Organisations New Zealand although the group is not operated in an official relationship to that organisation.
nz_railchat: As noted above it exists mainly to serve the interests of NZ railway modelling and has a membership of about 200. Currently it receives up to 100 messages per month. The group has remained focused on its original role, especially since other groups formed later have taken over most of the general discussion.
Other groups in NZ
This is not a comprehensive list, does not contain reference information on any of the groups and will not be updated periodically. Within the groups listed links may be found to other groups not mentioned.
Most of the groups are listed in this category due to one or more of the following considerations:
Small membership (around 100)
Low level of contributions
Low proportion of contributions: A small number of persons (less than 10) generate a significant proportion of the group traffic, with a relatively large number of quiet members.
Lack of original content: most group content is either cited or copied from other sites, regardless of attribution or referencing.
A highly specialised focus, such as the operation of a single organisation in the wider New Zealand railfan movement or rail industry.
Railways of New Zealand: Home Page
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