Aorangi railway station was a small station on the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The station was opened in 1878; and closed on 10 August 1959 for passengers and 2 November 1987 for goods traffic. There is now only a single line through the station site.

Te Araroa Te Araroa (The Long Pathway) is New Zealand's long distance tramping route, stretching circa along the length of the country's two main islands from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Officially opened in 2011, it is made up of a mixture of previously made ...

long distance walkway passes the station site.

History

By July 1876 the rails were in place, linking Palmerston North and Feilding, and ballasting was finished in September. The formal opening of the railway was on 19 October 1876. Charles Bull had a sawmill at Aorangi until about 1886. It had a private siding on the Feilding side of Aorangi from 1878, but there was a complaint about trains not stopping for passengers in 1883. By 1896 there was a shelter shed and passenger platform and also a cart approach by 1911. By 1959 there was still a shelter, platform and Borthwicks' private siding, which was the only source of local rail traffic after closure of the station on 10 August 1959. A 1949 aerial photo seems to show a shelter, where the 1967 photo (to the right) shows a white mark at the foot of the photo. In 1989 there was still a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

and private siding.

Aorangi Bridge

The railway crosses the

Oroua River The Oroua River is a river of the southwestern North Island of New Zealand. Name The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of dredging for shellfish" for . Description The Oroua River is a tributary o ...

between Aorangi and Feilding on Aorangi Bridge, which was rebuilt in 1930-31, when the curve was eased from a radius of to . It has ten spans, with a total length of . A footbridge over the river was built in 1883. The first road bridge opened on 21 March 1893. It was replaced by a

ferro-concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

bridge in 1930. The road and railway bridges were partly swept away in a flood on 17 April 1897.

Freezing works

A siding for the Oroua Freezing works was put in during its construction in 1915. West Coast Meat & Produce Co Ltd had the works formally opened by Prime Minister, Bill Massey, on 17 April 1916. Later that year the company changed its name to Feilding Farmers’ Freezing Company Ltd. They sold the works to Thomas Borthwick and Sons (Australasia) Ltd in 1931, who had a small shunting locomotive at Aorangi from 1931 to 1973. Rail traffic was reduced in 1944 by allowing road haulage for up to parallel with the railway. The works became part of AFFCO from May 1992, after re-building in September 1991. The works is no longer rail connected.

References

{{reflist Defunct railway stations in New Zealand Rail transport in Manawatū-Whanganui Buildings and structures in Manawatū-Whanganui Railway stations opened in 1878 Railway stations closed in 1987 1878 establishments in New Zealand 1987 disestablishments in New Zealand Feilding Railway stations in New Zealand opened in the 1870s Railway stations in New Zealand closed in the 20th century