Catlins River Branch

The coverage of South Otago (which I define as being south of Dunedin, up to the boundary of Southland) has recently considerably improved in Google Earth. This has led to improved maps, particularly the Catlins River branch and the Roxburgh branch, which will be covered separately. For the purposes of this article the maps will be divided into the sections between stations. The positions of stations is largely approximate based on the Quail Atlas. The coverage is so much better that virtually the whole map has been redrawn. The only part unchanged is the junction to near Finegand as this is still medium res Spot coverage.

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Finegand is the first station on the branch and the terminuse of the short stub remaining today. The freezing works has several sidings and is the main reason why this part of the line remains open today.

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The next station is at Otanomomo near the crossing of Kaka Point Road. It is an unremarkable section with the main point of interest being the extant bridge over the Waitepeka River just north of Koau Road, shown as a green arrow near the top of this map.

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Third station is Romahapa which is the effective end of the flat/straight plains initial section of the line. A couple of small bridges remain in place as indicated by some of the green arrows seen north of the main highway crossing.

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The line then climbs relatively gently over the next 6.5 km to Glenomaru (2nd location) which is 51 metres higher in altitude. Curves were no sharper than 9 chains on this route and the most significant grade was about 1 km of 1 in 66 with an average grade of half that. At least four bridges are still in place on this section.

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The section between Glenomaru II and the Hunt's Road station which is seen just below a horseshoe curve at bottom left, contained the Hunts Road tunnel (triangle symbol) with the original Glenomaru station site just to its north. These days you can walk through the tunnel with the italic letter i indicating the public access route from the highway. The tunnel was the summit of a climb on both sides, 1.5 km of 1 in 62 from the north and 1 in 50 for almost 2 km from Hunts Road on the south side.

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From Hunt's Road to Tahora is relatively unremarkable except for the triple horseshoe curves used to get a reasonable grade of 1 in 50 downhill most of the way.

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South of Tahora the route is very nearly straight and level through to the major township of Owaka, the initial terminus, which lost this status after 8 years when the next part opened. It is slightly under halfway.

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Ratanui is alongside the Catlins River estuary (the so called lake) and is reached by way of a gentle ascent and descent of a modest summit halfway from Owaka.

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Grades are also very favourable in the next section to Houipapa.

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Reaching Tawanui requires almost 3 km of continuous ascent at 1 in 66. The station itself gives a short respite in the middle of the long climb to Puketiro.

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South of Tawanui the line ascends 86 metres in 6 km, the uncompensated initial gradient being 1 in 66 over the first half of this distance, and 1 in 55 when compensated for the effects of numerous 7 1/2 chain curves over the remainder. Puketiro is at the summit, and the highest station on the line at 157 metres.

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The entire section through to Caberfeidh is taken up with a descent at a compensated gradient of 1 in 44, again with numerous 7 1/2 chain curves.

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The descent continues at a steeper 1 in 40 compensated grade down to Maclennan from where it levels out. Stuarts station is seen to the far left. A bridge site of about 20 metres length is just north of Maclennan.

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As well as levelling out, the line straightens as well. About halfway between Stuarts and Takahopa was the site of Campbells Siding.

Rimutaka Incline Railway: Stage 1

This time around I have changed the map files so that the WL_Wgtn file (Wairarapa Line – Wellington) covers all of the Rimutaka Incline section right up to where it ends just outside Featherston. This is just a commonsense thing that means it is not split over two files. So I am not so much concerned by the physical boundaries of Wellington, as I am with being able to represent such an important historical feature of the Wellington railway landscape, in one single map file.

During this week the Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust, to give it its full name, appeared at a hearing of a subcommittee of Greater Wellington Regional Council to support their application for a concession to operate through the GWRC owned land which currently contains most of the Rimutaka Incline railway formation they intend to operate on.

Now just for some statistics I have measured this in Google Earth using my maps and these are the critical distances:

• Maymorn – Dry Creek: 1.4 km
• Dry Creek – Kaitoke South: 3.9 km
• Kaitoke South – Kaitoke (deviation): 1.3 km

On their website the group have suggested Stage 1 is Maymorn to Summit. I think with the size of the group and the development that is needed I would suggest they cut back Stage 1 to Kaitoke and focus on developing a train operation over that initial 7 km along with the facilities at Kaitoke. Summit is not a destination for tourists, as there is nothing there and no road access to it. A 7 km operation is bigger than anything else in the Wellington area. It will give them a good base to work from for the much larger task of getting to Summit at a future time (Summit is another 12 km from Kaitoke roughly).

Part of the reason for saying this is that their society only has 40 members and that is a pretty small base to develop from. To get to what they are hoping to achieve they will have to broaden their appeal a lot more in order to grow their membership. They have spent their first ten years focusing on being a rail heritage organisation, and arguably this focus has limited their achievement. It is difficult to see how they can achieve more without a change in focus or broadening their appeal and in my view, being less about rail heritage and more about this tourism focus. So the rail heritage side of things, which there has been a lot of focus on, needs to go into the background more. Another part is the assumption, which I think is quite reasonable, that the development will be more protracted than predicted, because most of the time this is what happens. I think the formation works will take longer and cost more than predicted, because remedial work will be found that was deferred by NZR especially towards the end of operating the line.

Here is the latest map showing the entire route.

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The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line (Part 2)

Continuing from our previous article here are more features of the line. As the Gisborne section includes two branches, these are also detailed.

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Heading out of Napier there are industrial sidings at Pandora. The route then turns north to cross the Westshore Bridge which is a side by side road-rail structure. The road portion was bypassed with another bridge about 20 years ago.	North of Napier is Bay View with a question mark indicating the assumed location of a ballast pit.
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As the line heads inland and country gets more difficult the first tunnels since Woodville are encountered.	At Kahika, the highway was recently deviated onto a new bridge next to the Matahorua Viaduct.
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Near Raupunga, at 97 metres the Mohaka Viaduct is the highest in NZ.	Wairoa is a junction of the abandoned inland route via Ngatapa. Some formation works (green) were undertaken to Frasertown. Nearby is a freezing works siding.
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Nuhaka is near the coast. The Nuhaka River rail bridge east of the station collapsed several years ago while being repaired, its piers eaten away by the teredo worm.	A double horseshoe curve is encountered at Waikokopu, site of an early harbour development now abandoned.
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The Kopuawhara Monument was erected in 1942 at the scene of a flash flood that claimed the lives of 21 railway construction workers.	The ? symbol indicates the approximate location of Tunnel 24 which was bypassed after it collapsed.
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The lengthy Waipaoa River Bridge had to be extended in 1988 after it was washed out by flooding. Nearby is a sawmill siding.	Gisborne has the only railway line crossing an airport runway in New Zealand. Another siding is just to the south.
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The Moutohora Branch joined the main line 1.7 km from Gisborne. This was intended to link up with the East Coast Main Trunk at Taneatua but the route was never completed.	The Ngatapa Branch left the Moutohora Branch at Makaraka, site of the East Coast Museum of Transport and Technology.
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The Gentle Annie Tramway was operated by Gisborne City Council until 1917. Above is shown the site of a bridge that crossed now-disused riverbed.	The Ngatapa Branch reached its terminus at 18.5 km. The plan for this to be the main line south to Wairoa was abandoned due to unstable land and the branch closed 1931.
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The Moutohora Branch crossed the Waipaoa River near a freezing works site.	The first two tunnels (triangle symbol) on the Moutohora Branch are between Waipaoa and Puha. Part of Tunnel 2 has been demolished.
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Tunnel No.3 took the Moutohora Branch under a disused former section of the highway. This tunnel was recently reopened.	Just south of Matawai is Tunnel No.4 on the Moutohora Branch.
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The centre span of the Motu River Bridge is still in place just south of Moutohora.	Gisborne station yards and the site of the Gisborne City Vintage Railway.
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Gisborne Port was served by a short branch that crossed over the river and connected numerous industrial sidings. The bridge and track remain today.	Nearby was a tramway.

The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line (Part 1)

The PNGL is a line that was not actually completed until the 1940s and which in particular between Napier and Gisborne has struggled to stay open in the last two decades. Right now it is under review again and may yet close. The line was to be extended via Moutohora and Waioeka through to Taneatua to meet up with the East Coast Main Trunk but in part due to the fact that a spiral would have been required, the works were never completed and the Moutohora Branch closed in 1959 while the Taneatua end has been closed since the late 1990s although the track remains in place.

The maps below break down significant features of the route.

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Starting at Milson an early feature is a proposed never-built deviation (yellow). There are a couple of sidings nearby.	Ashhurst at the entrance to the Manawatu Gorge, with the the first two tunnels (triangles).
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Deeper into the Gorge with a number of bridges (green arrows) and the remaining three tunnels which have been daylighted.	Oringi and the freezing works siding.
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Tapuata with a siding which may have loaded fertiliser.	These curves at Makotuku may have been part of the railway in the past.
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The former (aqua) and present (red) Ormondville Viaduct routes. A tunnel was apparently planned along the yellow route but has never been built.	The site of Takapau station which also had a freezing works siding nearby of which no apparent trace remains.
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Just east of Takapau is the present crossing loop and another freezing works siding.	At Marakeke are the works and sidings of the Hatuma Lime Co.
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Waipukurau has a freezing works siding just to the south.	Just north of Waipukurau an overbridge was rebuilt in 2009.
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Tomoana has several sidings including the freezing works.	Whakatu also has sidings with a freezing works.
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Clive for many years had rolling stock belonging to the NZ Railway and Locomotive Society.	Awatoto has a fertiliser works siding and a ballast pit somewhere nearby (? symbol speculated). Other sidings existed north of the station.
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Napier station was formerly adjacent to the vanished locomotive depot and workshops. The station used to be a little north of its present location.	Napier's port is served by the Ahuriri Branch. The junction with the main line was moved a little to the west in 1941.

Rimutaka Incline Railway defines alignment

In their newsletter 29 the Rimutaka Incline Railway has defined a route for a connecting line between their Maymorn base and the old Wairarapa Line route pre-1955 which connects to the Rimutaka Incline at Summit. An approximation of that route is shown in the map below (green).

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To the left in aqua can be seen the actual link route used during the construction of the Rimutaka Deviation in the early 1950s. The old main line runs across the bottom of the map also in aqua. The red line of course being the current main line route. The connecting route suggested by the heritage railway will be challenging as it crosses the side of a hill and therefore substantial earthworks will be needed to keep a constant or practical gradient.

Mount Somers Tramway

The Mount Somers Tramway was a light industrial narrow gauge railway that was built inland from Mount Somers township in Mid-Canterbury into the Ashburton Gorge in order to transport extracted mineral resources to the Mount Somers railway station on the Springburn Branch. The tramway was in operation from 1886 to 1943 and is documented in I D Maffey’s eponymous book published by the Canterbury Branch of the NZRLS (nowadays the Canterbury Railway Society, which owns the Ferrymead Railway) in 1971. It was constructed initially in a gauge of 1 foot 11 1/2 inches (597 mm) and was laid with a constant downhill grade in favour of loaded trucks, therefore initially was able to be worked by horse teams. By 1907 traffic was increasing to such an extent that a steam locomotive was ordered to work the line. At Mount Somers railway station a transhipment siding was laid in the rail yard where goods were transferred to railway wagons. In 1929-30 the line was widened to standard railway gauge and ex-NZR locomotive “Fa” 10 was purchased to work the traffic. Later on various home built “lokeys” were constructed to suit requirements. At this time the tramway was connected as a private siding at Mount Somers railway station.

The main types of traffic carried on the line were extracted minerals such as coal, lime and silica sand. These were worked from a number of sites and the quantities varied, however most of these workings were of a small scale. In the earlier days of the tramway operation, Mount Somers stone was quarried and brought out to construct a number of prominent buildings in Australia and New Zealand, such as the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch.

Refer the map below and following description and photos for more details of the tramway.

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Leaving Mount Somers railway station the tramway initially followed the Ashburton Gorge Road, firstly on the southern side for about 2.5 km, then it crossed the road to run on its northern side. After about 4 km the lime kilns associated with the Victory lime works was encountered. At this point a siding climbed up the escarpment and then ran north about 1.5 km to the limeworks site. The next features between 6–6.5 km from Mount Somers were the two larger bridges, over Woolshed Creek and Stony Creek. In the narrow gauge days the bridges deviated from the straight line requiring some sharp curves at each end. When the line was widened the bridges were relocated and the line straightened. At about 7.5 km a set of sidings for three lime and stone quarries was encountered. The original tramway continued to about 13.5-14 km from Mount Somers connecting en route with sidings to various other coal and sand mines finishing up near the Stour River.

In 1905 a branch off the tramway was constructed about 750 metres past the lime and stone quarries sidings up Woolshed Creek and various jigs were eventually constructed to get coal from mines on the surrounding hills down to the tramway. After only a few years of operation, this line was lifted between 1912 and 1914 all the way back to the junction, having become disused. The line was relaid and opened again in 1929. One of the Woolshed Creek mines was eventually owned by the Blackburn Coal Company and it was this enterprise that financed the conversion of the main tramway as far as the junction and the branch up Woolshed Creek to standard railway gauge. The Blackburn Co then became the main operator of the tramway and hauled traffic for other companies in addition to its coal. The remaining narrow gauge section of the tramway more or less ceased to be used after this time and was later lifted. The rebuilt tramway in its fullest extent only lasted for 10 years or so, the Woolshed Creek branch being lifted in 1941 and turned into a road. After this the limeworks was the only source of traffic on the line. In 1943 due to the line’s deteriorating condition its owner the Ashburton County Council called tenders for the remaining line to be lifted. Most of the tramway was lifted within 12 months. The siding connection at Mount Somers railway station was removed in 1949. The Blackburn Mine’s jig line continued to be used at Woolshed Creek until about 1952 when a road was built to the mine. 

Today the Woolshed Creek area is a scenic reserve and the gorge can be accessed with formed walking tracks.

Narrow gauge bridge piles at Woolshed Creek / Stony Creek on the main tramway. These bridges were made of wood.

Lime kilns at the Peache limeworks siding which followed the line seen higher up behind.

One of the standard gauge bridges at Stony Creek / Woolshed Creek on the main tramway. These bridges had concrete abutments and piers and were constructed of steel girders.

Mount Somers railway yard with the goodshed to the right. The tramway passed into the yard behind the shed and was originally connected to an exchange siding, with the gauge conversion it was connected as a private siding of the railway.

The Blackburn mine at the top of the jig incline, seen in 1992.

Part of the route of the Blackburn jig near the top.

Looking down the Blackburn jig.

An old boiler washed down into a creek in the Woolshed Creek Reserve.

NIMT Sidings Linton-Marton

This might seem a bit esoteric but I have mapped all these into the NIMT maps recently so there is enough detail for a post. Contrary to what I stated elsewhere these maps are all mapped from the NZ Rail Maps website, but they will be from the latest version of the map and that version could be updated in the future.

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Siding (purple) to Linton Army Camp top right. Came off old bridge route of NIMT (aqua).	Hypothetical siding in Linton-Longburn area. Not sure it existed.
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Here are sidings at Longburn. Foxton Branch to left & old PN city line to right.	Private siding at Milson.
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More sidings at Milson.	The Electricity Department had this siding at Bunnythorpe. Last used about 1992.
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Also at Bunnythorpe is Glaxo's first factory (they started in dairy) which was later a bike manufacturer's premises.	Sidings on outskirts of Feilding, southern one a freezing works.
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Feilding has a steam rail society based here.	Just north of the town at Makino there used to be this dairy factory. Owned by Glaxo at one stage.
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Approaching Halcombe this track realignment is passed.	There might have been a siding to this Kakariki factory once.
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Another possible siding site at Kakariki.	Also at Kakariki may have been a ballast metal site.
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Just outside Marton are these sidings for a malt works, owned by Malteurop.	Taonui near Palmerston North once had a short branch running off the NIMT.

Thanks to Steve Watts for confirming the NZED Bunnythorpe siding. You can see his photos here. Like other NZED sites such as Islington it is set well back from the main road and is a big site with a long siding. NZED's (this part is now Transpower) major substations are often set back some distance from rail tracks and roads. The result is a track length of some 800 metres. The Glaxo factory at Bunnythorpe was built in 1904 and used for some 70 years to make infant formula. Later on it was the Pantha BMX bike factory and had its own BMX track on the site. The route that its siding might have taken isn't clear on the overheads, whether it was separate off the NIMT or off the NZED one. When the map of the factory above updates you will be able to see a hypothetical route directly off the NIMT.

Pike River Mine Map

Google, presumably in response to the Pike River mining disaster, have recently updated coverage of the area. I took the opportunity to update my map at the same time as reorganising the SWL files. Coverage is dated April 2010.

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The section shown displays the mine itself, part of the access road, the coal processing plant and other detail.

Rimutaka Railway (Part 1)

Here we are, a couple of quite short postings on the “Rimutaka Railway”. By which, I mean sort of what is covered by the book of the same name, the old line from Upper Hutt to Featherston.

I don’t have the time I had hoped to write these articles so for now we are just going to have a quick look at some map sections to fill out the details. With the reorganisation of maps the first of these is the Wellington City Transport Map, the relevant part of which appears below.

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Now here are some subsections with comments about features displayed. As everyone knows both old and new routes are often quite close together, with three junctions and three crossings.

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Starting from Upper Hutt the first road crossed was apparently a level crossing instead of the current bridge. The old line crossed over the top of the new within a few hundred metres.	The old route then wound its way around through a series of cuttings and embankments. Subdivision development is now moving into the area threatening the remains today.
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Cruickshanks Tunnel was the first on the line and along with the adjacent Mangaroa River bridge took the line into the Mangaroa Valley.	The remains of Mangaroa station, the first out of Upper Hutt, can still be seen in Flux Road. There was an army siding nearby for some years.
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At Maymorn on the deviation, the two lines are now about 0.5 km apart. The green line shows the approximate route of a temporary link line used during deviation construction.	The second green line at Maymorn shows the corridor that the Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust proposes to use to link up the old and new routes. It's not clear if they will follow the direct line as this has an average grade of about 1 in 20.
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At Maymorn the Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust is establishing its base. The Trust proposes to reopen a heritage railway over the former Rimutaka Railway and Incline.	The map ends at the western portal of the Rimutaka Tunnel. The old route crossed over the top of the tunnel at this location.

Just a note on that first level crossing at Upper Hutt. The new route was lower than the old so putting in the bridge alongside the crossing would be almost impossible. Hence I postulate that this old line was probably taken out rather than having them next to each other, remembering this initial section of the deviation wasn’t fully completed until the old line had been closed.

Now as we know, the Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust has been established and is building up its resources at Maymorn with a view to reopening the Incline and the connecting trackage at either side. There is a certain amount of politics that accompanies the formation of yet another rail heritage organisation in a region the size of Wellington. I’ve got no particular issue with the establishment of the RIRHT as such. Rail heritage like all community and social organisations evolves continually and new organisations are established and take over from the old. One area where the RIRHT is quite forward looking compared to most of the rail heritage establishment in NZ is their use of the internet, including full publication online of all their newsletters. In a lot of current societies you will find this backward approach of selling these newsletters to subscribers – which I think is mistaken as the opportunity exists to publicise the activities of the societies to outsiders who are not getting this information any other way.

The acid test for the RIRHT will come in the next few years as it becomes necessary for them to make definite moves towards establishing the physical track they expect to operate on. This is what will establish them definitively as a serious player in the operation they are seeking to establish, rather than just another slightly different flavour of rail museum. I think with the stage of development they are now at, they should be seriously going for the resource consents and public hearings now, rather than spending a lot of time on their base site or their rolling stock. The whole premise they are founded on is dependent on establishing the rights to operate on that route and it is not a simple process to obtain the rights so getting the legal issues, which will take years to sort out anyway, is a good next step that still gives time to do some of the rolling stock and other core work as well.

On two of the above maps you can see the green lines that show connections between the old and new lines at Maymorn. The first of these is the route that was actually built and which still appears on maps and can also be seen on Google Earth. When the tunnel works were started the connecting track from Upper Hutt had not been laid so this connection was constructed in order to get materials in by rail to the site. It is very steep in parts with some gradients as much as 1 in 30. GE’s elevation profile shows an average grade of about 1.2% or 1 in 80. The RIRHT need to make a similar connection due to the fact that they have chosen not to reopen the old route from Upper Hutt to Mangaroa. Their route is shown as a corridor on some official documents of the Upper Hutt City Council. It would apparently make use of the unused space for a second track on the Maymorn Road overbridge then turn sharply and cross over Parkes Line Road with a bridge over it, then head more or less south until turning again to link up with the old route. It would need to climb quite sharply to get up to the bridge over Parkes Line Road and the ridge immediately south of it and this would make quite a challenge for operation. If Google Earth is right the average gradient is something like 5% or 1 in 20, which is certainly possible but very steep, so some means may have to be found to increase the track length over the straight line.

In recent years one of the positive developments of the area is a public access track from Parkes Line Road up to the Tunnel Gully section of the former railway, making it possible to take a mountain bike up on the train to Maymorn and cycle this part of the route, which has been established as such. This is shown on subsequent maps as being part of the Rail Trail over the route and will be covered as such in Part 2 of this series.