Over the Garden Wall: Story of the Otago Central Railway

JIM DANGERFIELD, born in Christchurch in 1915, joined the NZR services when the 40-hour week was instituted in 1936 and served in various positions and locations. The years 1940-1943 saw him overseas with the Railway Operating Group working supplies up to the battlefronts. For his efforts he was Mentioned in Dispatches and awarded the 8th Army Clasp. In 1960 he transferred into Otago as a Railways Signal and Staff Instructor. In that occupation he travelled numerous times over the Otago Central Railway on foot and by velocipedes, goods and passenger trains and railcars. He was made an Honorary Life Member of the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Inc. and was often consulted on matters of history. His publications include Dunedin's Match Box Railway; Coalfields Enterprise; Train Control in New Zealand; The First Railway in Otago; Steam and Horse Tram Working in Dunedin, 1879-1905;Hyde Railway Accident; Josephine and Her Friends. Jim was a contributor to New Zealand Railway Observer, RAILS, the Rothesay News (Ravensbourne), and The Signalling Record (England).

He also contributed to the project Southern People (Otago and Southland) before his death in 2003.
GEORGE EMERSON was born in Christchurch in 1935 and lived in Dunedin from 1946, except for two years spent in Great Britain. He discovered the Otago Central Railway in 1954 and became captivated with its history, its engineering and the way it related to the dramatic landscape of Central Otago. He spent many hours exploring the line, often tramping into remote places with his cameras seeking the few trains that ran during holidays or at weekends. George collaborated with Jim Dangerfield in producing the previous editions of Over the Garden Wall and also Coalfields Enterprise. George was a former chairman of the Otago Railway and Locomotive Society Inc., the founding chairman of the Otago Excursion Train Trust and a director of the Taieri Gorge Railway Ltd. In his other life George was a Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at the University of Otago. He died in 2002.