Fordell-Turakina has been covered here before I am sure although the article is not part of this second edition of this blog. However there is new Geoeye coverage of a significant part of the former route. Here are some features.
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| Junction at Turakina with a bridge across the river and then crossing SH3. | Ratana Pa township and the station. |
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| Whangaehu station site. | Possibly a ballast siding at the Whangaehu River along with the bridge of which 2 piers still remain |
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| The highway at Whangaehu used to make a sharp S bend and crossed the railway line about the same location where the current highway crosses the old formation. | This horseshoe and other curves are found as the line climbs out of the Whangaehu valley. |
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| I postulate that this is about where the Bakers Siding station was. | The old Fordell station was here. Google Earth's elevation profile suggests that Fordell was roughly the highest point on the old route with steep grades either side. |
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| Not far from Fordell the old line is on a hill high above the current route as it descends steeply towards it. | Northern junction of old and new lines. The old route was about 22 km long. |
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This green line is a guess at where the main line used to be. Supposedly this deviation was done over a hundred years ago. I need to do more work on determining where the old line might have gone. There have been further changes in New Plymouth of recent years, mainly that the old station site was closed down in the 1990s and all the freight traffic moved to Smart Road. There is nothing to be found now of the old station. As far as the 1907 deviation goes, you are said to be able to find where the old route crosses the river because there are still some bits of bridge foundations somewhere in the area.
