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.