Endeavour (train) - New Route, New Seats

New Route, New Seats

On Tuesday, 11 September 1984, two Southerner cars, which had been exchanged for the other two Endeavour cars, one with 50 (ex 33) seats, the other 45 (ex 29) seats, and two 46- seat car-vans with luggage space at one end, one Mitsubishi and two Daewoo-built modular guard's vans for luggage and two 50-ft wooden box wagons for parcels traffic were added to the four Endeavour cars to form two new Gisborne Express consists. All eight cars had been progressively fitted out with a new design of seat from Addington Workshops, which had proven successful on the Picton/Greymouth trains. The Endeavour cars sat either 54 without staff compartment (ex 36) or xx with staff compartment (ex 32) per car. The three modular vans replaced the two 56-ft Endeavour baggage vans. The two reseated Southerner cars returned to the South Island once all four Endeavour cars and the two cars with luggage spaces received their new seats.

Like the Produce Express (the name given to the Grass Grubs used while Endeavour cars assumed duty on the NIMT) before it, steel box wagons built by Addington Workshops between 1978–1982 were towed along at the rear for parcels traffic. The buffet car did not return. As this had been a change from the red, then green carriages used since 1981, many in Hawke's Bay started referring to the Wellington-Napier express as the Endeavour once more, although it lacked any of the catering services that the previous Endeavour once provided. However, the train's reliability began to decline; by this stage, the DA class had been withdrawn or converted into the DC class, so under-powered DBR class locomotives hauled the train and struggled to keep to the scheduled timetable.

On 7 March 1988, Cyclone Bola struck the east coast of the North Island, causing significant damage to the line between Napier and Gisborne. This led to the abbreviation of the Wellington-Gisborne express at Napier, and although the track was repaired, regular passenger trains ceased beyond Napier. Patronage on the Napier-Gisborne sector was never high except for occasional holiday traffic (it rarely carried more than a busload), and by turning around the train at Napier the number of carriages needed was halved as one train could do a return trip.