Hamilton Railway Station, New Zealand

Hamilton Railway Station serves the city of Hamilton in the Waikato region of New Zealand. It is located in the suburb of Frankton, hence the station's former name Frankton Junction, its name for most of its existence. The station is located at the junction of the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) and East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) lines. Only the NIMT still carries passenger services, which consist only of Northern Explorer services between Auckland and Wellington on six days of the week.Hamilton also had at one time a station in the city centre.HistoryFrankton Junction station consisted of an island platform located on the NIMT just north of the junction between the ECMT and NIMT. It had two signal boxes, and a locomotive depot was located in the Vee of the junction.Due to the end of steam operation in the North Island in 1968, the depot was closed and a new station was opened on its site in 1975 with a side platform on each line. The station was renamed to its present name at that time. The Frankton South End signalbox was relocated to the Hamilton Miniature Engineers' site at Minogue Park in Te Rapa, opposite the new Te Rapa loco depot, while the station building became a café near Waikato University.