The Mount Somers Branch, sometimes known as the Springburn 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 the region of

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. ...

, New Zealand. The line was built in stages from 1878, reaching

Mount Somers Mount Somers ( mi, Te Kiekie) is a small town in Canterbury, New Zealand, nestled in the foothills of the Southern Alps. The population in the 2001 census was 2,307. Due to its scenic location, it has seen growth in the number of holiday homes ...

in 1885. A further section to Springburn was added in 1889; this closed in 1957, followed by the rest of the line in 1968. A portion has been preserved as the

Plains Vintage Railway The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum is a heritage railway and recreated historic village in the Tinwald Domain, Tinwald, New Zealand. The railway (operating as The Plains Railway) runs on approximately three kilometres of rural railwa ...

Construction

Unlike many other rural branch lines in New Zealand, this line was not built for the sole purpose of opening up land for agriculture, as there were significant deposits of

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

in the hills behind the town of Mount Somers. Construction commenced in May 1878, with the line leaving 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 ...

at Tinwald, the southernmost suburb of Ashburton. With the onset of the

Long Depression The Long Depression was a worldwide price and economic recession, beginning in 1873 and running either through March 1879, or 1896, depending on the metrics used. It was most severe in Europe and the United States, which had been experiencing st ...

looming, the construction work on the line provided valuable employment, and as it was built, it was progressively opened. The first 13.39 km to Westerfield were opened on 15 April 1880, followed by Anama, 30.9 km from the junction, on 3 October 1882, and then Cavendish on 1 March 1884, 35.02 km from Tinwald. Although it had been decided to terminate the line on the south bank of the South Ashburton River, another 2.58 km was built to Mount Somers, opening on 4 October 1885. An extension of 5.57 km to Springburn was opened on 9 September 1889, bringing the line to its full length to 43.17 km. In 1886, a privately owned narrow-gauge

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 are ...

was built into the hills behind Mount Somers to serve coal mines and a limeworks. This line operated until 1963, though after 1943 it was closed beyond the limeworks.John Yonge (editor), ''New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas'', fourth edition (Essex: Quail Map Company, 1993), 24.

Stations

The following stations were on the Mount Somers Branch (in brackets is the distance from the junction at Tinwald): * Lagmhor (8.13 km) *

Westerfield Westerfield is a village in Suffolk, England. It lies about two miles north of the centre of Ipswich in the East Suffolk District, and is served by Westerfield railway station on the Ipswich– Lowestoft East Suffolk Line. Amenities Westerfie ...

(13.39 km) * Hackthorne (17.92 km) * Punawai (21.69 km) *

Valetta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 was ...

(26.56 km) * Anama (30.9 km) *

Cavendish Cavendish may refer to: People * The House of Cavendish, a British aristocratic family * Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), British poet, philosopher, and scientist * Cavendish (author) (1831–1899), pen name of Henry Jones, English auth ...

(35.02 km) *

(37.6 km) * Buccleugh (?? km) *

Springburn Springburn ( gd, Allt an Fhuairainn) is an inner-city district in the north of the Scottish city of Glasgow, made up of generally working-class households. Springburn developed from a rural hamlet at the beginning of the 19th century. Its indu ...

(43.17 km)

Operation

For roughly half a century a daily

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 ...

operated on the line. Besides coal and limestone, important commodities on the line were grain, livestock, and

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

that was railed to a glassworks in the

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

suburb of

Hornby Hornby may refer to: Places In England * Hornby, Lancashire * Hornby, Hambleton, village in North Yorkshire * Hornby, Richmondshire, village in North Yorkshire Elsewhere * Hornby, Ontario, community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canad ...

, served by the Southbridge Branch. At one point in the 19th century, as tractors displaced horses on farms in the area, substantial traffic came from the transport of horses to the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

, where the terrain was too steep for tractors of the era to handle. As road transportation improved in the 20th century, the line's importance slipped. Passenger traffic, in particular, had markedly declined from a peak of 18,000-25,000 passengers per annum in the late 19th century, and as it was no longer viable the passenger service was withdrawn on 9 January 1933.

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

generated increased traffic for the line, especially as there was a military camp located in Westerfield, but after the war ended conditions returned to their pre-war status. In 1951, the freight trains were reduced to twice a week and they now commenced in Ashburton rather than at the branch's terminus. Closure of the short section to Springburn had been suggested as early as 1930 and this finally occurred on 29 March 1957, with full closure of the line on 1 January 1968. Wheat was railed from

until April 1968. The first 2.5 kilometres of the line from the junction at Tinwald to the Frasers Road crossing survive as

The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum is a heritage railway and recreated historic village in the Tinwald Domain, Tinwald, New Zealand. The railway (operating as The Plains Railway) runs on approximately three kilometres of rural railwa ...

The branch today

Some of the

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

, including embankments and cuttings, survive, while in other places it has been obliterated, often by farming activity.

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 survive at Mount Somers, along with a couple of loading banks, and at Valetta, where some

ballast Ballast is material that is used to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within a boat, ship, ...

is still in place on the formation of a siding. The site of the Westerfield yard retains a couple of loading banks, there are bridge abutments at various points, and about a kilometre from Westerfield School a couple of

sleepers ''Sleepers'' is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin H ...

can be found.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * Hermann, Bruce J; ''South Island Branch Lines'' p 14 (1997, New Zealand Railway & Locomotive Society, Wellington) * {{NZR Lines Railway lines in New Zealand Rail transport in Canterbury, New Zealand Railway lines opened in 1885 Railway lines closed in 1968 Closed railway lines in New Zealand