The Hedgehope Branch, also known as the Browns 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 ...

Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...

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 ...

that started life in the 1880s as a privately owned

bush tramway A bush tram and line-side log hauler owned by the Tamaki Sawmill Co., Raurimu. Photographed by Albert Percy Godber circa 1917. In New Zealand railway terminology a bush tramway is an industrial tramway, most commonly used for logging. They ar ...

. It opened as a railway in 1899 and operated until 1968, though the section beyond Browns closed in 1953. It connected with the

national rail network In United States railroading, the term national rail network, sometimes termed "U.S. rail network", refers to the entire network of interconnected standard gauge rail lines in North America. It does not include most subway or light rail lines. F ...

in Winton on the

Kingston Branch The Kingston Branch was a major railway line in Southland, New Zealand. It formed part of New Zealand's national rail network for over a century: construction began in 1864, Kingston was reached in 1878, and it closed in 1979. For much o ...

Construction

In 1883, the Forest Hill Tramway was established and a line that ran eight kilometres west of Winton to settlers in the Browns Gap area was constructed. Although the line was not particularly successful, the Hokonui Coal Company extended it in 1886 to serve their coal mining operations near the settlement of Hokonui. The tramway was built to standards far inferior to those of a railway, and the decision to upgrade was made in the 1890s. In 1896, the

Makarewa River The Makarewa River is the largest tributary of the Ōreti River, and is in Southland, New Zealand. It flows for from its source in the Hokonui Hills, joining the Ōreti just north of Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the sout ...

was bridged, and over the next three years, the old tramway was rebuilt to railway standards and the line was extended to Hedgehope. The line was completed in 1899 and was handed over to the government's Railways Department in time for the grand opening on 17 July 1899.

Stations

The following stations were located on the Hedgehope Branch (in brackets is the distance from Winton): *Devereux Road (4 km) *Kings (5 km) *Browns (9 km) *Hokonui (14 km) *

Springhills Springhills is a locality in the central Southland region of New Zealand's South Island. Situated in a gap between Forest Hill and the Hokonui Hills, it is located on 29 kilometres west of near Mataura and 15 kilometres east of at Winton. ...

Siding (16 km) *Mako (19 km) *Hedgehope (21 km)

Operation

The line's passenger services barely lasted three decades, with cancellation coming on 9 February 1931. Unlike most branches in Southland, the Hedgehope Branch had significant industrial traffic, mainly coal and

agricultural lime Agricultural lime, also called aglime, agricultural limestone, garden lime or liming, is a soil additive made from pulverized limestone or chalk. The primary active component is calcium carbonate. Additional chemicals vary depending on the mineral ...

, and trains ran five days a week. The line was losing money by 1930, and despite staff cuts, the losses were relatively the same in 1952. As most of the lime traffic came from the stations of Kings and Browns, the section beyond Browns to Hedgehope was accordingly closed on 24 December 1953. Roughly 75,000 tonnes of lime was being railed off the branch annually until 1959, when government incentives for farmers to transport lime via rail were slashed. The line failed to survive the next problem to strike its lime trade. A significant quantity of lime was railed up the

Tokanui Branch The Tokanui Branch, also known as the Seaward Bush Branch, was a branch line railway located in Southland, New Zealand. It diverged from the Bluff Branch south of the main railway station in Invercargill and ran for 54 kilometres in a southea ...

, but when it closed in early 1966, the Browns Branch saw its traffic almost evaporate. After struggling through the rest of the year and 1967, it was closed on 1 January 1968.

Today

There is very little left of the Hedgehope Branch, with both nature and human development removing most interesting traces. Some of the formation is faintly visible, but only one substantial remnant can be found - the truss bridge across the Makarewa River, converted to allow access to a farm. Otherwise, no

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 ...

s, loading banks, disused rails, or other railway structures and objects remain. Discernible flat areas are all that is left of the yards that once existed in the termini of Browns and Hedgehope.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * {{NZR Lines Rail transport in Southland, New Zealand Railway lines in New Zealand Railway lines opened in 1899 Railway lines closed in 1968 Closed railway lines in New Zealand