Feilding railway station was a 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 se ...

line in

Feilding Feilding ( mi, Aorangi) is a town in the Manawatū District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 54, 20 kilometres north of Palmerston North. The town is the seat of the Manawatū District Council. Feilding has ...

, New Zealand. It was opened on 1 October 1876 and closed on 1 July 2002. The station is now used by Feilding Information Centre and an occasional excursion train. The south wall of the station is decorated with a mural, which features Feilding's 1999 clock tower, which has a 1902 clock. The nearby former goods shed has a mural depicting the X Class loco stored at Feilding. The murals were by Eric Brew, who was a resident artist and painted many other murals in the town. Feilding had hoped to be the junction of the

and the Marton–New Plymouth line so had made Kimbolton Road exceptionally wide, but that honour went to Marton and

Longburn Longburn (or Karere) is a rural settlement just outside Palmerston North in the Manawatū-Whanganui area of New Zealand. Made up of large dairy processing plants Longburn is often mistaken to be a small township and not seen as a large satellite t ...

History

J & C Bull built a 5th class station with platform, goods shed, privies and urinals by 28 April 1876. By July 1876 the rails were in place, linking Palmerston North and Feilding, and ballasting was finished in September. Two platelayers' cottages and a stationmaster's house were built by Burgess & Thompson in 1877 and a ladies waiting room in 1878. By 1896 there was also 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 ...

for 19 wagons, cart approach, loading bank and cattle yards and the goods shed was by , with a crane and a verandah added in 1897. By 1900 the goods shed was by . In 1973 a wool loading shelter replaced an earlier one. The contract for the extension north from Feilding to the Rangitīkei River was let on 28 June 1876. The line was extended to

Halcombe Halcombe is a small settlement in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island, New Zealand. It is situated 13 km north west of Feilding and 4 km east of the Rangitikei River, between State Highway 1 and State Highway 54. ...

from 22 April 1878, thus linking the ports of Foxton and

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...

to their hinterland. Feilding gas works opened in 1897 and gas lamps were added to the station in 1901. Electric lighting came on 25 January 1916, after the local power station opened in 1915. Sawmillers Manson & Bartholomew, later known as Feilding Sash and Door Co, had a tramway link to the railway from 1877 until at least 1916. A new by station, built by Graham Lambert Builders for £27,000, opened on Thursday, 7 December 1961 to replace the old one, burnt down on 29 July 1960.In part of the building was demolished in 1988 after another fire.

Services

Initially Feilding was served by two trains a day from Foxton. The first Foxton-Whanganui train on Thursday 18 April 1878 took 6½ hours. The through public service began on 20 May 1878 with two trains a day each way, taking 5hrs 50mins for the journey. The first Auckland - Wellington through expresses ran on 14 February 1909, taking 19 hours 13 minutes, and stopping at Feilding. From then on, Feilding was often one of the calls made by the expresses during the night. For example, in 1932, the express from Auckland arrived at 4.20am. In the 1970s trains calling at Feilding were the

Blue Streak Blue Streak or Bluestreak may refer to: Entertainment * ''Blue Streak'' (album), a 1995 album by American blues guitarist Luther Allison * Blue Streak (comics), a secret identity used by three separate Marvel Comics supervillains * Bluestreak (co ...

and Northerner. Feilding closed to regular passenger trains when the Overlander was replaced by the

Northern Explorer The ''Northern Explorer'' is a long-distance passenger train operated by The Great Journeys of New Zealand division of KiwiRail between Auckland and Wellington in the North Island of New Zealand, along the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT). Thre ...

in 2012.

Chart_of_Feilding_railway_station_passengers_1881-1950

References

{{reflist

External links

Photos - * F Class loco a
Feidling about 1880damage to Aorangi Bridge approach in 1897 floodold Aorangi road and rail bridges
an
in 1878, with bush background

station and streets about 1910

fire in 1960
* RM railcar at Feilding in 1974 Defunct railway stations in New Zealand Railway stations opened in 1876 Railway stations closed in 2002 Rail transport in Manawatū-Whanganui Buildings and structures in Manawatū-Whanganui Feilding

History

Services

See also

References

External links