The Fairlie Branch (also known as the Eversley Branch) was a
branch line
A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.
Industrial spur
An industri ...
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
in southern
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour.
...
which formed part of
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 ...
's
national railway network. Construction began in 1874, and at its farthest extent, it terminated just beyond
Fairlie in Eversley. Its closure came in 1968, but a portion remains open in
Pleasant Point as the
Pleasant Point Museum and Railway
The Pleasant Point Museum and Railway is a heritage railway located in the small country town of Pleasant Point in southern Canterbury, New Zealand, inland from Timaru.
History
Its main terminal is located at Pleasant Point station, which w ...
.
Construction
Proposed in the early 1870s, the local government voted in favour of a branch line from
Timaru
Timaru (; mi, Te Tihi-o-Maru) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to ...
to Pleasant Point in December 1872 and a construction contract was let in the following March. After a railway act approving the line was passed later in 1873, construction could commence, and it did so on 18 February 1874. The branch left the
Main South Line
The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Inverca ...
in
Washdyke
Washdyke is an industrial suburb in the north of Timaru, in south Canterbury, New Zealand. State Highway 1 passes through Washdyke on the way north out of the city. The northern terminus of State Highway 8 is in Washdyke.
Washdyke is home of ...
, now a northern suburb of Timaru, and headed northwest towards Pleasant Point. Construction of this 14.42 km of railway proceeded without any notable difficulties, opening for service on 24 December 1875 - though trains had been able to run to Pleasant Point as early as two months previously. An extension followed swiftly, and the 27 km addition to
Albury
Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...
opened on 1 January 1877.
[''New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas'', fourth edition, edited by John Yonge (Essex: Quail Map Company, 1993), 24.]
After this point, however, construction stalled. On 13 August 1880, the Timaru Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution to pressure the government to call tenders for the construction of the remainder of the line.
This was followed by a public meeting in Fairlie on 25 March 1882 that issued the same demand on the government, asserting that the line to Albury was the best paying in New Zealand and an extension would provide more convenient access to much of the freight then conveyed to the Albury terminus.
Contracts were soon let, and the next 12 km to
Winscombe
Winscombe is a large village in the North Somerset unitary district of Somerset, South West England, close to the settlements of Axbridge and Cheddar, on the western edge of the Mendip Hills, southeast of Weston-super-Mare and southwest of Bri ...
were opened on 24 August 1883. Less than half a year later, the final portion of the line was opened for general traffic to the locale of Eversley, just beyond Fairlie, on 28 January 1884, giving the branch a full length of 58.2 km.
Some sources, including Railways Department publications, incorrectly state this happened on 9 January 1884.
[For example, see New Zealand Railways Department, ''Geographical Mileage Table'' (New Zealand Railways Department: Place of publication within New Zealand unknown, 1957), 19. The previously cited ''New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas'' also offers the incorrect date.] The opening of the line was celebrated on 30 January 1884 by a public holiday in Fairlie and environs, and an excursion train ran from Timaru conveying 600-700 passengers for the occasion. This train was
double-headed by
K 88 ''Washington'' and a member of the
F class, and it consisted of a guard's van and 14 carriages, some of which were brought down from Christchurch the previous morning to cater for the anticipated large crowd.
There were plans to extend the branch even further to
Burkes Pass
Burkes Pass is a mountain pass and at its base, a small town on State Highway 8 at the entrance to the Mackenzie Country in South Canterbury, New Zealand. It is named after Michael John Burke (1812 Co. Galway-1869 Melbourne) a graduate of Du ...
and the
Mackenzie Country
The Mackenzie Basin (), popularly and traditionally known as the Mackenzie Country, is an elliptical intermontane river basin, basin located in the Mackenzie District, Mackenzie and Waitaki Districts, near the centre of the South Island of Ne ...
.
27 kilometres of formation were made to varying standards of completion, but ultimately no rails were laid and the line's farthest terminus remained Eversley.
Stations
![Pleasant Point Railway 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Pleasant_Point_Railway_1.jpg)
The following stations were located on the Fairlie Branch (in brackets is the distance from Washdyke):
* Racecourse (?? km)
* Cartwright's Road Crossing (?? km)
* Levels (5.91 km)
* Waitawa (approximately 10 km)
* Pleasant Point (14.42 km)
* Sutherlands (21.89 km)
* Cave (29.89 km)
* Ma Waro (35.38 km)
*
Albury
Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...
(41.18 km)
* Tengawai (approximately 42 km)
* Cricklewood (47.73 km)
*
Winscombe
Winscombe is a large village in the North Somerset unitary district of Somerset, South West England, close to the settlements of Axbridge and Cheddar, on the western edge of the Mendip Hills, southeast of Weston-super-Mare and southwest of Bri ...
(52.75 km)
*
Fairlie (56.89 km), known as Fairlie Creek until a name change was approved on 9 May 1892
* Eversley (58.2 km)
The Fairlie station was destroyed by fire on at least two occasions, first on 13 January 1890
and again on the night of 8 August 1908.
After the 1908 fire, the post and telegraph office formerly based at Fairlie station was housed in a temporary building; this too was burnt down in a suspected act of arson on the morning of 20 September 1908.
Operation
The line's reason for existence was to open up farmland in the region behind Timaru and promote rural development. When opened to Pleasant Point, two trains ran each way a day, and while the line had its terminus in Albury, significant traffic was generated by wool and grain being carried by
dray to the station from regions further inland.
Upon opening to Fairlie, the line's timetable was initially adjusted to the pattern typical of many rural New Zealand branch lines, with a single
mixed train
A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, servic ...
carrying both passengers and freight running each way per day. Special freight trains ran as necessary, especially to collect livestock from Pleasant Point. For a period, the line also had its own dedicated passenger train, nicknamed the "Fairlie Flyer", but it perhaps did not live up to its fast-sounding name; by the late 1920s, it was quicker to travel by car between Fairlie and Timaru, which resulted in a decline of traffic that led to the train's cancellation in 1930. From this time, passengers were solely catered for by the daily mixed train.
The line had also started making a loss around this period, and on 1 April 1934, the short section from Fairlie to Eversley was closed. It had always been operated as an extension of the Fairlie yard and its existence had become redundant. The rest of the line entered into a slow demise, with passenger services cut to thrice weekly in 1953; the mixed train operated Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with solely freight carried on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On 2 November 1953, passenger provisions were cancelled entirely and all services became freight only.
With the cessation of the mixed trains, the small
locomotive depot
The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...
in Fairlie closed and the freight trains were operated every weekday morning from Timaru. Intense competition from road traffic posed problems for the line, and what traffic it did retain was mainly due to government subsidies. Despite this, by 1966, the livestock traffic that had been the line's primary cargo was all but non-existent and the decision was soon made to close the line. The date of closure was 2 March 1968 and the occasion was marked by a special return of the Fairlie Flyer, attracting large crowds of locals.
The branch today
Remnants of closed railway lines diminish and disappear as a result of natural and human activity, but some relics from the Fairlie Branch's operating days still exist, most notably the 2.5 km of restored trackage still in use by the
Pleasant Point Museum and Railway
The Pleasant Point Museum and Railway is a heritage railway located in the small country town of Pleasant Point in southern Canterbury, New Zealand, inland from Timaru.
History
Its main terminal is located at Pleasant Point station, which w ...
. At Washdyke, the first few hundred metres of the branch were retained as a
backshunt and to provide access to an
industrial siding, and the track currently remains in place. For much of the line's length from Timaru to Fairlie, the formation can be seen making its way through the rolling countryside, and abutments and piles still stand at the site of some bridges. One bridge itself still stands, near Winscombe. Loading banks still exist at the site of Levels, Waitawa, Sutherlands, and Cave stations. Levels also still possesses its
goods shed
A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...
and Waitawa has the remnants of a platform.
The
Fairlie Rail Trail Fairlie may refer to:
People
* Fairlie (surname)
* Fairlie Dalphatado (1924–2010), Sri Lankan cricketer
* Fairlie Harmar (1876–1945), English painter
Places
* Fairlies Knob National Park, in Queensland, Australia
* Fairlie, New Zealand, a ...
is planned to use the route once used by trains
and to start work by 2015.
Popular culture
The song "Fairlie Flyer" words by Bill Timmings and music by the Picasso Trio, written in the late 1960s, focuses on the branch line and some of its characters such as Martin Fahey, the legendary guard of the 'Fairlie Flyer' to Timaru. The refrain makes reference to the final excursion over the line, also dubbed the 'Fairlie Flyer' and hauled by A
B's 718 and 798:
''So fireman stoke that engine,''
''steam down that railway track.''
''This train that's leaving Fairlie''
''is never, ever coming back.''
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
* Hermann, Bruce J; ''South Island Branch Lines'' pp 15,16 (1997, New Zealand Railway & Locomotive Society, Wellington)
*
{{NZR Lines
Railway lines in New Zealand
Rail transport in Canterbury, New Zealand
Railway lines opened in 1875
Railway lines closed in 1968
Closed railway lines in New Zealand