1982: Operation Freightcare
April 12, 2020
By AHNZ
On 3 May, 1982, New Zealand Rail launched a re-brand. The focus at this time was the way in which the Corporation¹ branded itself to its labour force. It was the image of what even the Alexander Turnbull Library describes in its archives as “an attractive young woman….”
“Good shunting is like a soft kiss”. Be careful not to damage rolling stock and freight through rough shunting.”
“Shows an attractive young woman posing in a railway freight carriage amongst cartoons of Aspen Ridge grape juice, Sanitas bathroom tissue, Purex bathroom tissue, Swallow letterboxes, and other parcels.”
“The young woman is identified as Miss Railfreight 1983, Trudy van Zyl in “The railways of New Zealand; a journey through history”, by Geoffrey B Churchman and Tony Hurst (1990), page 68.”- Ref. Alexander Turnbull Library
In terms of Moral Cultures they were leaving behind the Victimhood Culture ‘Environmentally Friendly’ ‘Fuel Fighter 661’ gimmick. The ‘Special Energy Test Train’, ‘Auckland – Wellington’, of 1980 belonged to a previous era that appealed to austerity and sacrifice. Anarchist History of New Zealand identifies that era as Muldoonist Slave Culture (c.1975-1980.) Other examples of the same mentality include Carless Days and Punk Rock.
It was a breath of fresh air to rev our engines once more and enjoy beautiful women and trains again without shame! Always after Slave Culture comes Honour Culture, and this next time period is called by AHNZ the KZ7 Honour Culture (1980-1987.) Whereas Victimhood Culture stamps out or eliminates entirely the enjoyment of sexual dimorphism, Honour Culture absolutely highlights it. Men are masculine, women are feminine. (This is also why the hard Victimhood Culture of c.2015-2020 normalised a plethora of gender identities and insisted on the banning of grid girls².) Honour Culture was back and the Government’s train set adjusted its public relations accordingly.
This image (left) shows the new logo being announced to staff by NZ Rail in November 1983. In the top part are some more of the eventual products of that initial campaign- some stickers I collected for the Anarchist History Archives at a very young age.
KZ7 Honour Culture was a time for achieving great practical and physical things. It was a climate in which women could model and to a high degree of technical expertise because the support was there both as an industry and in the culture.
Miss Freightcare Still With Us
Miss Freightcare, Van Zyl, is still with us and hasn’t aged a day (Her idea of ageing seems to be to look more like 90s Laura Harring.) She became a makeup & stylist professional for the likes of TVNZ and opperates her About You enterprise from the Viaduct Harbour Auckland & Waiheke Island.
Trudy backs up the admission of the time that the campaign frazzled some people. NZ Rail’s Staff News said in November 1982, “….certainly caused a lot of comment and not all of it complimentary.” Possibly some old railwaymen and women did not like being told how to stack and shunt and fork by a 22yo girl and that’s what they thought was happening.
“History Always Repeats: Remembering New Zealand this brings back memories.. I loved that campaign as I love trains..
“I came to model in the campaign after The late George Kolap who photographed the posters suggested to have me feature in them as my look was sporty rather than “sexy” as they where going to book a very shapely smouldering blonde … can you imagine how the posters would have been received if they had!!
“As it was there was still quite a few feathers ruffled with lots of Newspaper articles.
“As Miss Freightcare I travelled New Zealand.. visiting staff and the various stations.. it was a fabulous couple time.. and as I recall the campaign was very successful..”- Trudy Van Zyl, 11 April, 2020; Commenting to HAR; Facebook
According to NZ Rail, Trudy is correct. Not that an Anarchist trusts Government statistics, especially when it is self-reporting and self interested…but NZ Rail reported a 22% drop in damage claims by November then 32% by December 1982³.
The Next Campaign
However, NZ Railways Corporation had bigger problems. Being a State programme it was, of course, inefficient and bleeding money. Over the course of the past 10 years of r-selected eras things had really gotten out of hand. The new Honour Culture and the Dignity Culture to follow would not tolerate this waste. Break up and asset sales were on the horizon. National 3.0 was quite candid about this while Labour 4.0 energetically promised to “Save Rail” but then did the opposite when they came to power.
Thus, the next propaganda campaign by NZ Rail after Trudy’s came in 1983 (ref video below) with a large advertising buy stressing the value of NZ Rail to the nation. “We’re putting a great deal on the line,” said Barry Jenkin. The target audience was clearly not the customer but the public in whose voting hands the survival of The Corporation relied. It was politics, an appeal by this rogue socialist leviathan to build enough public support so that a Robert Muldoon or a Richard Prebble would not be able to vivisect it.
It failed. But that’s another story.
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1 They referred to themselves as the Corporation. Boy, just you wait until Labour 4.0 comes along NZ Rail! Then you’ll get to know the meaning of the word…
2 “Grid girls were axed in January 2018 after bosses said it the tradition was now “at odds with modern societal norms“; Ref. Irish Sun
3 Ref. Staff News and Ref. NZ Rail TV advertisement
Image ref. Our Freightcare Girl; Trudy Van Zyl; Staff News; NZ Railways; May, 1982; Katherine Milburn (thank you)
Image ref. Coloured images on matchboxes; Noel O’Riley Collection; History Always Repeats; Facebook
Image ref. Zyl leaning out in a dangerous goods store in Addington; Christchurch Star Archive, 25 March 1983; discoverywall.nz
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