The Nelson Railway: A Virtual Exploration, Part 3

Well now, back on the virtual tour of the old Nelson Railway. Last time we left off we were just coming into Tui. After Tadmor the railway turned to more of a southerly heading, then just outside Tui it has turned to a westerly kind of direction. The railway from here continues to head west or south-west-west nearly all the way to the next station, Kaka. Tui is interesting as there used to be a road overbridge, not because the topology demanded it, but because issues of road traffic at level crossings were becoming established by the time the railway was being constructed through here 1908-1912. The bridge is shown on a map I have dated 1982 so it appears to have lingered long after the railway closed, but today there is nothing there although the road that passed over it is still visible. The road today takes a different route from when it used to cross over the bridge, which was almost in the middle of the railway yard as we understand its location. After Tui the road and rail gradually close in and for the second half of the section to Kaka they are hemmed in together at the top of a ledge with the river on one side and hills on the other. Kaka had various industries in proximity, including lime works, clay mining and sawmillling, some of which can still be traced today. The limeworks had a tramway to transport the lime to the station, which only operated for perhaps 25 years. Just south of Kaka the railway crosses the main road continuing at first through more open country, then things get hillier as the line climbs the Tadmor Saddle. En route to the summit the line passed under an overbridge on the Tadmor main road. This bridge no longer exists. For much of the route through the saddle the line is in forest or bush and only comes out into the open again as it descends to Glenhope. The route is still very clear through the forest section and may well still be in use as a logging access. Once into the open country again it can be seen that several small bridges are still in place for farm access etc. One larger bridge of about 15 metres length appears to be still in place about 1 km north of Glenhope. The route skirts the river and passes by the site of an old coal mine before reaching Glenhope station, the main building of which still stands today. Nearby is an old ballast pit that was used to dump two written off FA locomotives in the late 1930s although probably little if anything remains today.

Heading south from Glenhope was the extension that was eventually opened to Kawatiri and Gowanbridge in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The rail route followed the west side of the main road from Glenhope, until it crossed over just north of Kawatiri. As there have been major highway works in the last decade through this section, this will have most likely changed or removed some of the remnant traces of the railway through the area as it was close to the road most of the way through. Just north of Kawatiri there was a bridge across the Hope River, then a tunnel, then another bridge before reaching the station. Today there is a public walkway across the reconstructed southern bridge and tunnel. Kawatiri was another station that had a road overbridge where Highway 63 turned off to head for Blenheim via the Wairau Valley. Like at Tui the road was diverted when the overbridge became redundant, and the old truss road bridge across the Hope River is long gone, although an approach span remains. South of Kawatiri only medium res coverage of Google Earth is available making it very difficult to determine a possible route. Although Street View coverage is resumed partway through for the first time since Tapawera, the old rail route is largely obscured by regrowth of bush and probably highway improvement works have encroached. My recollection of travelling this route is that it’s possible that in some places the railway would have been well below the road, and could take a lot of effort to locate the formation today. Street View yields very few clues – perhaps the best is this hint of a cutting -  and in places the ledge of the road is too narrow to have a rail formation right alongside. I always assumed the railway must be some distance down the bank on the river terrace. It is only as you approach Gowanbridge itself that it is possible to believe the rail may actually have run beside the road some of the way. Past the turnoff to Lake Rotoroa (which used to have an overbridge crossing the line) the highway finally passes the station site. From here south formation works were continued almost right to Murchison but never formally opened and as we know Glenhope-Kawatiri and all works south closed 1931 with the track lifted 1942 and never relaid. With the topography and overhead coverage south/west of Gowanbridge as challenging as the earlier section from Glenhope, I have made little effort to try to find the route of the railway virtually, although the country opens out as you approach the Owen River settlement. Sustained investigation will have to wait for improved GE coverage. When the hi-res finally resumes nearer Murchison, what you can see is inconclusive. However you can catch an occasional possible remnant and I wonder and continue to wonder about this concrete culvert and this small bridge, for example.

THE END

The Nelson Railway: A Virtual Exploration, Part 2

Well, we’re back on the elusive trail of the Nelson Railway and covering its second half down from Tapawera towards Murchison. The main difference here is that most of the area covered has no Street View at all. So even though the first half was only half covered, the second half is practically uncovered. Anyway we leave Tapawera heading west, along a prominent curved embankment towards the Motueka River which until 1977 still had the old former road-rail bridge there for traffic. Tapawera is where an outfit called the Grand Tapawera Railroad Co got started back in the 1980s. Hence the replica shelter and trackset on the west side of the street where there is now the Kiwi station building. In time, the GTRR Co reinvented themselves as the Nelson Railway Society and moved to Founders Park where they operate today. Once across the river it’s off down the Tadmor Valley, heading south again, the direction that the line takes for most of the rest of its course, having been going north from Kohatu to Tapawera and now having turned through another half circle. Things roll along pretty flat till Rakau when the hills are starting to close in. The actual formation isn’t always that visible so we have to guess the general location and all the maps I drew up till now turned out to be wrong – the railway ran next to the road instead of being some distance to the east. Here, therefore, I had to take a break from writing to to redraw the map from Tapawera up to Tadmor. Now that’s sorted, let’s carry on into the hills.

After Tadders, things twist and turn a bit, the line crosses the road three times, a couple of small bridges can be seen about here – and in general the formation is easy to see from above. The road and rail close in about now, the rail right alongside but lower than the road as they squeeze between a hill and the river. This pattern is repeated for a few more km before breaking out on the approaches to Kiwi, the rail now on a lower river terrace. As the country gets heavier we see more bridges and culverts, of which the latter (as buried pipes) are still largely existent, fulfilling their traditional function under a disused but extant embankment. Rail is hemmed in alongside the river again until it takes a big curve out to the west and then back south as it approaches Tui. And there we’ll leave it for this part – I’d hoped to get further than I have, but I have done a lot of mapwork this time as well, so we will continue with the next (and hopefully last) instalment tomorrow – though the way things are going, this could stretch out to a fourth or even fifth part.

The Nelson Railway: A Virtual Exploration, Part 1

Right at the moment I’m updating my Nelson Section file in Google Earth and making use as always of Street View where it exists and is relevant. Panoramio also adds a few useful photos in places.

Even in suburban Nelson there is still a substantial stretch of embankment that is accessible as a walking/cycling track along the steep grade from St Vincent St up to Bishopdale. Here is the view of the embankment at 264 Vanguard Street. You can easily pick it out as the ledge about halfway up the side of the hill. Here it is again just a little further on at 4 Tukuka Street. 148 Tipahi Street gives one of the best, clearest views of what must have been a huge construction effort in the pick and shovel era. Waimea Road catches up with the route at Station Reserve, at the summit where the line starts to drop down the other side. Bishopdale was right at the top of this hill and the grades either side are pretty severe (NZ Rail Maps has a rough curve/gradient diagram that shows things well). From Bishopdale there is a road right alongside all the way down through Annesbrook. Middleway round the first half of the S bend is a promising looking bridge site. The railway side of Waimea Road has the virtue of being largely undisturbed, a much better situation than St Vincent St where development has caused even the stream to be filled in and the last few remnants in the area like the bridge abutments and the odd sleeper at the road’s edge to vanish. Next thing is the roundabout that takes you onto Whakatu Drive. The land alongside is still undeveloped and open until you get to Annesbrook where the overbridge got knocked down a few years ago. At this point the formation splits after crossing the road and while you stay on Whakatu Drive you don’t see the formation directly until the road takes it over at Freezing Works. However once again it is a walking-cycling track through to Stoke (Songer Street) at which it has disappeared into private property. The track however starts up again about 200 metres further on continuing as far as 24 Elms Street at which point a road is built on it. This is about where Whakatu Drive swings in to occupy the formation which is not visible again until past Richmond and then only at the back of properties. This part of the motorway was built around 20 years ago and the stretch from Freezing Works to the north end of the Richmond Bypass at Champion Rd is a relatively short piece added on fairly recently.

From the Appleby Overbridge the formation is easy to see overhead all the way to Brightwater. Beyond the station 750 metres of formation is either in private property or open reserve. SH6 then takes over until the formation splits away 200 metres short of Simmonds Road. Just past here at 41°22'53.63"S 173° 5'26.15"E looks to be a good part of an old bridge on the route. We’re almost at Spring Grove but to get to its famous crossing sign you have to turn off the motorway down Telenius Road. From here it’s all overhead, and pretty clear, through to Wakefield, where the station site appears to be built on (and where Streetview coverage temporarily runs out). After a few hundred metres the route comes alongside and then crosses SH6, paralleling it before things get rural again. The route is very clear from above right out to Wai-iti, and onward to Foxhill, before it turns to cross the highway at Belgrove (which has its famous windmill as a local landmark). From here there is a big climb up the Spooners Saddle with the tunnel at the top of it, or you can try tracing the 1885 formation which goes around east to run alongside Wai-iti Road. The 1890 route which was actually used is quite visible most of the way from here to the tunnel having crossed SH6 on the way and being drivable along Tunnel Road much of the way (West Tunnel Road on the other side). There are a few more crossings of SH6 back and forth coming down the hill into Motupiko (aka Kohatu) where we pick up StreetView coverage again. From here the track ran alongside SH61 to Tapawera although it can be hard to spot except for the occasional culvert. The road and rail crossed just before Mararewa, which is next to the cemetery. The rail stays on the east side from there to Tapawera, diverging where the highway turns left, the rail carries straight on and is not seen again till it turns to cross SH61 just past Tapawera station. On the opposite side of the highway but not actually on the rail route is part of the old Kiwi station having been moved here some years ago. And now we are a little over halfway from Port to Gowanbridge – and here too is the end of the first half of this article.