Maymorn railway station is a twin platform, rural

request stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, st ...

railway station serving the small settlement of

Maymorn Maymorn, a rural area of Upper Hutt city in the Wellington region of New Zealand, consists of Rural Hill and Rural Valley Floor zones. The New Zealand census treats Maymorn as part of Te Mārua for statistical purposes. The usual resident 20 ...

on the Maymorn Plateau, east of

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. Geography The Upper Hutt city cent ...

, in

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 North Island. It is served by the

Wairarapa Connection The Wairarapa Connection is a New Zealand interurban commuter rail service along the Wairarapa Line between Masterton, the largest town in the Wairarapa, and Wellington. It is operated by Wellington suburban operator Transdev (with KiwiRail sub ...

, and sees five services each way Monday to Thursday, six on Friday and two on Saturday and Sunday. This station was initially known as Mangaroa and received its present name on 26 January 1959.

History

This station officially opened on 3 November 1955 along with the Rimutaka Deviation and

Rimutaka Tunnel The Remutaka Tunnel (spelled Rimutaka Tunnel before 2017) is a railway tunnel through New Zealand's Remutaka Range, between Maymorn, near Upper Hutt, and Featherston, on the Wairarapa Line. The tunnel, which was opened to traffic on 3 November ...

, and the original Mangaroa railway station was closed. The ground on which the station is located was created using fill extracted during the construction of the Rimutaka Tunnel. During construction of the tunnel, a crossing loop long enough to accommodate 116 wagons and a temporary connection to the now closed section of the

Wairarapa Line The Wairarapa Line is a secondary railway line in the south-east of the North Island of New Zealand. The line runs for , connects the capital city Wellington with the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line at Woodville, via Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt ...

were built to enable work trains to bring in materials and supplies. The connection between the old and new lines was lifted along with the old line, but the loop remained in use for many years afterwards for operational reasons. Northbound (up) passenger services used the loop and second platform, while southbound (down) passenger services used the main line and first platform. Both platforms had identical wooden passenger shelters on them. In 1990 part of the loop was lifted, reducing it to a siding, and it was completely removed by August 1999. As part of the Wairarapa station upgrade program to accommodate the SW-class carriages for the

, this station was renovated in 2007 with works completed by the end of August that year.

Selective door opening Selective door operation (SDO), also known as selective door opening, is a mechanism employed primarily on trains (although buses with multiple doors also generally have this feature) that allows the driver or conductor/guard to open the doors of ...

is employed at Maymorn since the platform is only long enough to fit three carriages (guards check while collecting tickets re any for Maymorn). The station's wooden passenger shelter suffered extensive fire damage on 17 July 2008 in a suspected

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

. As it was judged uneconomic to repair the building, it was demolished the following week. A new glass shelter was installed on the site of the old wooden shelter during the evening of Monday 18 May 2009.

Today

Nothing remains of the crossing loop, and all sidings have also been lifted. Despite this, there is still evidence of the former presence of the loop including the second platform, the gap between it and the main line, and the extra-wide Maymorn Road overpass. There is a passenger shelter on the main line platform (the shelter on the second platform has long been removed), a couple of equipment buildings, and a shed for a surfaceman's trolley. On 14 November 2009 the Rimutaka Incline Railway excavated the back of the second (disused) platform to both retrieve fill and to make way for the formation of their own rail yard. From the station, an embankment on which the old line ran can be seen just past the end of Old School Road, and now has a fence line running along its apex. Hikers can access the old railway formation using an access road which starts near the station, from the corner of Maymorn Road and Parkes Line Road. At the top of the access road, where it meets the formation, the remains of the Dry Creek Gully bridge which carried the line over a washout, are to the right but obscured by dense foliage.

Future

On 14 July 2005, the

Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust The Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust is a non-profit, charitable trust in New Zealand that was established in 2003 with the objective of reinstating an operating heritage railway over the Remutaka Ranges using the original route of the Wa ...

secured a 20-year heritage lease on land at the Maymorn railway yards from

KiwiRail KiwiRail Holdings Limited is a New Zealand state-owned enterprise responsible for rail operations in New Zealand, and operates inter-island ferries. Trading as KiwiRail and headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, KiwiRail is the largest rail ...

. The trust proposes to reinstate the world-famous

Rimutaka Incline The Rimutaka Incline was a , gauge railway line on an average grade of 1-in-15 using the Fell system between Summit and Cross Creek stations on the Wairarapa side of the original Wairarapa Line in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand. The t ...

, with its base of operations established at Maymorn, and is currently working through stage one of the project including preparing the yard, construction of buildings, fencing and platelaying. This will also include a rail connection of approximately in length between the station and the original railway formation, for which their preferred option is to lay their own line over the Maymorn Road overpass next to the current main line. In 2003, the

Greater Wellington Regional Council Wellington Regional Council, branded as Greater Wellington Regional Council, is the regional council overseeing the Wellington Region of New Zealand's lower North Island. It is responsible for public transport under the brand Metlink, environ ...

proposed extending double-track from Trentham to

and extending electrification north of Upper Hutt to Timberlea and Cruickshank Road. A 2011 strategy published by the Upper Hutt City Council proposes extending electrification to Maymorn, to capture planned growth in the area. As part of the

New Zealand Upgrade Programme New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

announced by the government on 29 January 2020, a new passing loop will be installed at Maymorn.

Incidents

On 23 July 2009 the locomotive and first carriage of a Masterton-bound Wairarapa Connection derailed after hitting a mudslide at eastern exit of the -long Maoribank Tunnel No.1, about a kilometre west of the station. No injuries were reported, but the line was blocked for three days.

Footnotes

External links