The Moutohora 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 industr ...
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 ...
that 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 rail network in
Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay ( Māori: ''Tūranganui-a-Kiwa'') is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawke Bay. It stretches for from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the no ...
in the
North Island 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 ...
. The branch ran for 78 km approximately North-West from
Gisborne into the rugged and steep
Raukumara Range to the terminus at Moutohora. Construction started in 1900, and the line was opened to Moutohora on 26 November 1917.
Built to the New Zealand standard gauge the line was originally intended to become part of a railway to Auckland via Rotorua, and later as part of an
East Coast Main Trunk Railway
The East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) is a railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, originally running between Hamilton and Taneatua via Tauranga, connecting the Waikato with the Bay of Plenty. The ECMT now runs between Hamilton and Kawerau ...
running from Gisborne to
Pokeno by way of
Ōpōtiki,
Taneatua,
Tauranga
Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...
, and
Paeroa
Paeroa is a town in the Hauraki District of the Waikato Region in the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula, it is close to the junction of the Waihou River and Ohinemuri River, and is approximately 20 k ...
. This comprehensive scheme never came to pass, and the branch line it subsequently became was closed in March 1959.
The branch had four names during its lifetime. Initially, it was authorised as a Gisborne to Rotorua line and labelled as such in the
Public Works
Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...
Statement until 1910. From then, while isolated from the rest of the NZR system, it was known as the Gisborne section (later the
Palmerston North–Gisborne Line
The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line (PNGL) is a secondary main line railway in the North Island of New Zealand. It branches from the North Island Main Trunk at Palmerston North and runs east through the Manawatū Gorge to Woodville, where i ...
) of the NZR. Once Gisborne was linked to the rest of the NZR network in 1942 the line became the Motuhora Branch, to be renamed the Moutohora Branch in 1952, when the
New Zealand Geographic Board
The New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa (NZGB) was established by the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946, which has since been replaced by the New Zealand Geographic Board (Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Act 2008. Althoug ...
decided on this spelling for the line's terminal locality.
Construction
The first report on proposals to link Gisborne and the rest of
Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay ( Māori: ''Tūranganui-a-Kiwa'') is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawke Bay. It stretches for from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the no ...
to the outside world by rail was made in 1886, but nothing eventuated at that time. In April 1897 the East Coast Railway League was established to press for the development of rail connections, and in 1899 the Government announced that Gisborne was to be connected to
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
by a line of rail. Work on the line started in early 1900. On 14 January the then
Minister for Railways, the
Joseph Ward
Sir Joseph George Ward, 1st Baronet, (26 April 1856 – 8 July 1930) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 17th prime minister of New Zealand from 1906 to 1912 and from 1928 to 1930. He was a dominant figure in the Liberal and Unit ...
, turned the
first sod. The first of the line ran across coastal plains with few obstacles, and the line was opened to Kaitaratahi on 10 November 1902.
[New Zealand Railways Geographical Mileage Table, 1957] A ''Gisborne-Rotorua line'' from
Makaraka to
Mōtū of about was authorised by the ''Railways Authorisation Act, 1904.'' An eventual connection to the
Rotorua Branch
The Rotorua Branch is a railway line from Putāruru to Rotorua, in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Construction of the line was commenced by the Thames Valley and Rotorua Railway Company and finished b ...
disappeared after a 1911 survey to connect the "Gisborne Section" with the
East Coast Main Trunk
The East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) is a railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, originally running between Hamilton and Taneatua via Tauranga, connecting the Waikato with the Bay of Plenty. The ECMT now runs between Hamilton and Kawera ...
.
Once past this point the line required large river bridging works, four
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
s, heavy
earthworks and the construction of two large
viaducts
A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide va ...
18 and 30 metres high; in 1910 Massey Bros (
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
engineers from 1901 to 1913) won a £3,002 contract for steel girders for the Gisborne-Rotorua Railway on the
Otoko to
Rakauroa section. Much of the line was built on steep
grades of up to 1 in 30, and many tight curves were required. Despite all earthworks being carried out by pick and shovel, and although hindered at times by floods, washouts and landslips and (in the later stages) a wartime shortage of materials, progress continued at a slow but steady pace, and the line was opened to Moutohora at 78.5 km by 26 November 1917.
Once at Moutohora, even though over the main divide, there was no easy way for the railway to link up with the rest of the NZR network, as a definitive line for a connection to the Bay of Plenty had never been identified. By 1920, 13 separate surveys had sought a practical route, but the expensive nature of the works required to provide a descent to the Bay of Plenty always deterred politicians from authorising any further extension of the line. In his annual report to parliament in 1916, the Minister of Public Works,
William Fraser stated "Construction beyond the Kowhai Road
outuhoraStation cannot be put in hand until the route of the mainline towards the Bay of Plenty is definitely located." With the completion of the branch to Moutohora in 1917, construction workers were almost immediately transferred from Moutohora to Ngatapa to continue work on the line south. In 1924, with the Napier - Wairoa section of the
Palmerston North - Gisborne Line Palmerston may refer to:
People
* Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer
* Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston
** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman and B ...
was under construction and a short section between Wairoa and Waikokopu had been completed; it was decided that year to extend the line from Waikokopu to Gisborne via the coast rather than the longer inland route to Ngatapa. With the passing of time it became clear that Gisborne would be connected to the rest of the NZR system via this coastal route. This line south was finally completed and opened for traffic in 1942.
There was briefly interest in reviving a connection when the
East Coast Main Trunk
The East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) is a railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, originally running between Hamilton and Taneatua via Tauranga, connecting the Waikato with the Bay of Plenty. The ECMT now runs between Hamilton and Kawera ...
reached
Taneatua in 1928. A new survey was undertaken by local surveying firm Grant and Cooke, proposing the new line leave the branch south of
Matawai, crossing a saddle near Te Wera and then following the Koranga and Wairata streams to the Waioeka Valley down to the Bay of Plenty via Opotiki, and then on to Taneatua. The
Great Depression following the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...
saw this scheme shelved.
Operations
![Moutohora terminus and railyard area](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Moutohora_terminus_and_railyard_area.jpg)
Until connected with the Palmerston North – Gisborne Line in 1942 the Moutohora branch served a purely local function in maintaining access to Gisborne's
hinterland
Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...
. The line had heavy traffic in its early years and consistently showed an operating profit In the 12 months between April 1903 and March 1904, when only about 21 km of line were open, the approximately 6,500 people in the district made 47,706 single or return passenger journeys, and 4,464 tonnes of freight were carried.
In 1919-1920, with the full length of the line in operation, over 30,000 tonnes of freight were carried.
Road metal
A road surface (British English), or pavement (American English), is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past, gravel road surfaces, hoggin, cob ...
from a quarry at Moutohora accounted for 16,400 tonnes of the 1919-1920 total, and continued to be a major component of all freight traffic in following years. Much of the rest of the 1919-1920 freight was timber cut from the extensive forests to which the line provided access. In the same year over 113,000 passenger journeys were recorded, the passenger traffic being sufficient to support a privately leased
refreshment room at
Te Karaka
Te Karaka is a small settlement inland from Gisborne, New Zealand, Gisborne, in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. It is located in the valley of the Waipaoa River close to its junction with its tributary, the Waihora River. Te Karaka is ...
station. Apart from occasional passenger excursion trains all trains were mixed, carrying both passengers and freight.
By 1930 most of the economically accessible timber had been cut out and sawmills along the line began closing down. Road metal and livestock continued to provide reasonably large tonnages, but with the onset of the depression both passenger and freight operations fell away, with only a small fraction of the district's primary produce being exported.
Even when economic conditions improved rail traffic did not recover to pre-depression levels until the imposition of road traffic restrictions and petrol rationing during the 1939-1945 war years. In August 1942 the Moutohora branch was connected to the rest of the NZR network via the Palmerston North – Gisborne Line, causing a temporary increase to nearly 70,000 passenger journeys on the branch in the 1942-1943 year. After 1944, and the partial easing of some road transport restrictions, passenger numbers and freight fell away dramatically. Because of the combination of reduced passenger numbers and wartime coal shortages, passenger services were withdrawn from the branch on 29 January 1945. They were replaced by a 24-seat
New Zealand Railways Road Services
The New Zealand Railways Road Services (NZRRS) was a branch of the New Zealand Railways Department and later the New Zealand Railways Corporation. It operated long-distance, tourist and suburban bus services and freight trucking and parcel serv ...
bus.
Motive power and train working
For the first seven years from 1902 two
D class 2-4-0T locomotives provided all the motive power required for both construction and running services. In 1909 they were supplemented by an
FA class 0-6-2T
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is derived from the Semitic letters taw (ת, ܬ, ت) via the Greek letter ...
, and in 1910 the first of six
WA class 2-6-2T engines arrived, with the two D class locomotives being shipped away at about the same time. As the F
A class locos aged they were themselves replaced by
WW class 4-6-4Ts and
BB class 4-8-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, usually in a leading truck or bogie, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no ...
locomotives. Finally in 1952
AB class 4-6-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomo ...
Pacifics were introduced. The large
tender on the A
Bs limited visibility when running backwards, so to ensure the line could be worked safely by these more powerful engines NZR installed a
turning triangle at Moutohora station. Previous to this all engines had run smokebox first towards Moutohora and bunker first on their return.
Despite the heavy gradients train working was not as difficult as may have been expected. Most of the uphill traffic comprised empty wagons being sent to transport the district's primary produce back to Gisborne. The heavy downhill trains required more braking power than tractive effort, and special train management rules were in place to ensure a safe descent into Poverty Bay.
Closure
As freight volumes continued to decrease the viability of the branch came into question, particularly as it was now clear the connection with the Bay of Plenty would never be made. In 1952 a Royal Commission was appointed to look into the profitability of branch lines, including the Moutohora branch. The Commission sanctioned the retention of the branch for the time being, but made it clear to the local citizens that it was a case of "use it or lose it."
The development of
aerial topdressing
Aerial topdressing is the aerial application of fertilisers over farmland using agricultural aircraft. It was developed in New Zealand in the 1940s and rapidly adopted elsewhere in the 1950s.
Origins
Previous aerial applications
The first k ...
led to a short-term increase in freight traffic towards the middle of 1952, as large volumes of
superphosphate Triple superphosphate is a component of fertilizer that primarily consists of monocalcium phosphate, Ca(H2PO4)2. Triple superphosphate is obtained by treating phosphate rock with phosphoric acid. Traditional routes for extraction of phosphate roc ...
were required in the district. This did not last and after lingering on for a few more years the end came in 1959, by which time keeping the line open cost more than three times its annual revenue. Despite the activities of a Railway Promotion League persisting into the 1950s to have the line extended to
Taneatua, the branch officially closed on 14 March 1959. The last working train ran a month later, on 14 April, bringing out a final load of road metal for highway improvements that would use the railway alignment once the rails had been lifted.
Today
Five kilometres of the Moutohora branch remain open to Makaraka, functioning as an industrial siding to service a fruit storehouse. Many remains of the
embankments,
cuttings, bridge
abutment
An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...
s and tunnels can be seen from
State Highway 2 from near Ormond to Matawai. About 5 km of the old roadbed is now the Otoko recreational walkway. Just past the northern end of the walkway, the abutments and one of the steel piers of the 30m high Otoko viaduct are clearly visible to the east of the highway. Between Otoko and Rakauora the current highway runs largely on the old railway alignment, and the piers of the Rakauora viaduct still stand about 100m to the west of the highway just before reaching Rakauora. The Matawhai station platform edge can be seen alongside the Matawai-Moutohora road, and the Motu river bridge
truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
remains in situ. Some railway buildings remain at various places up and down the old line, but there are now no railway remains left at the site of the Moutohora terminus.
Locomotive D 143, one of the two D class locomotives to work on the line in the first few years, has survived and is now in preservation at the
Silver Stream Heritage Railway at
Silverstream in the
Hutt Valley
The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zeala ...
near
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
.
Locomotive W
A 165, which arrived in 1911 to work the Gisborne section (as it was then) has also survived in preservation. Now owned by the
Gisborne City Vintage Railway Incorporated, it has been returned to running order and is regularly steamed to provide excursions.
See also
*''
Palmerston North–Gisborne Line
The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line (PNGL) is a secondary main line railway in the North Island of New Zealand. It branches from the North Island Main Trunk at Palmerston North and runs east through the Manawatū Gorge to Woodville, where i ...
''
*''
Ahuriri / Napier Port Branch''
*''
Nagtapa Branch''
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Information about the Otoko walkway, which follows part of the old roadbedDepartment of Conservation
Silver Stream Railway 'D' class historyGisborne City Vintage Railway Inc. information about Wa165 at [http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?BU=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aucklandcity.govt.nz%2Fdbtw-wpd%2FHeritageImages%2Findex.htm&AC=QBE_QUERY&TN=heritageimages&QF0=ID&NP=2&MR=5&RF=HIORecordSearch&QI0=%3D%22AWNS-19101006-2-3%22 Otoko in 1910] and a
Matawai in 1913*[http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?BU=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aucklandcity.govt.nz%2Fdbtw-wpd%2FHeritageImages%2Findex.htm&AC=QBE_QUERY&TN=heritageimages&QF0=ID&NP=2&MR=5&RF=HIORecordSearch&QI0=%3D%22AWNS-19171206-42-2%22 Photo of first train at Motuhora in 1917]
{{NZR Lines
Railway lines in New Zealand
Railway lines opened in 1917
Railway lines closed in 1959
Rail transport in the Gisborne District
1917 establishments in New Zealand
1959 disestablishments in New Zealand
3 ft 6 in gauge railways in New Zealand
Closed railway lines in New Zealand