Price's Bush Tramway was a

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 ...

built around 1903 near

Akatarawa The Akatarawa Valley is a valley in the Tararua Range of New Zealand's North Island. It provides a link from the upper reaches of the Hutt Valley to Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast through rugged hill country. The valley is lowly populated and cont ...

in the

Tararua Range The Tararua Range, often referred to as the Tararua Ranges or Tararua, is one of several mountain ranges in the North Island of New Zealand. The Tararua Range runs northeast–southwest for from near Palmerston North to the upper reaches 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 ...

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 ...

. It was built with a raised Fell third rail for braking the loaded trucks, as used by the

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 ...

History

Price's Bush was an area owned and milled by Thomas Price (1838–1906), who owned milling operations in Lower Hutt and Petone.Bush tramway showing wooden rails, at Akatarawa, Price's Bush, circa 1903.
A P Godber Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library. It lay in the upper reaches of 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 ...

Waikanae Waikanae (, ) is a town on the Kapiti Coast, 60 kilometres north of the Wellington CBD. The name is a Māori word meaning "waters" (''wai'') "of the grey mullet". The town lies between Paraparaumu, eight kilometres to the southwest, and Ōtak ...

on the

Kapiti Coast The Kapiti Coast District is a local government district of the Wellington Region in the lower North Island of New Zealand, 50 km north of Wellington City. The district is named after Kapiti Island, a prominent island offshore. The pop ...

in a rugged hill country.Tracks and Trails: Price's Flat – Area near old Hukinga Village Site along Hukinga Road.
Akatarawa Recreational Access Committee Inc. Retrieved on 8 May 2018 The tramway had wooden rails with a

track gauge In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many d ...

of equal to that of the main line or Wellington tram respectively. Between the two rails, on which the wheels ran, there was a raised wooden rail. This was used for braking the loaden trucks downhill, as known from the

Fell mountain railway system The Fell system was the first third-rail system for steep grade railway, railways that were too steep to be Rail adhesion, worked by adhesion on the two running rails alone. It uses a raised centre rail between the two running rails to provide ex ...

on the

. Bush tramway showing wooden rails, at Akatarawa, Price's Bush, circa 1903 ATLIB 336629.png, Bush tramway showing wooden rails in Price's Bush at Akatarawa, 1903 File:Man transporting logs with horses and railway in the Akatarawa Bush, Hutt Valley ATLIB 241830.png, Transporting logs with horses in the Akatarawa Bush, Hutt Valley, 1912-1916

Additional literature

* Tony Walzl
''Akatarawa and Pakuratahi Forests History.''

References

4 ft gauge railways in New Zealand 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in New Zealand Logging railways in New Zealand Tararua Range {{NewZealand-rail-transport-stub