1955 Te Awamutu - Te Mawhai - Te Kawa North Island Main Trunk map

Te Kawa railway station was a station on the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

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 ...

, located at

Te Kawa Te Kawa is a rural community in the Ōtorohanga District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It lies just to the south of the volcanic hills of Kakepuku and Te Kawa. Until the swamp was drained in the 1900s, Te Kawa was well know ...

. The railway crossed (or 8,000) Te Kawa Swamp to the north of the station on a embankment. Culverts were included to maintain the effectiveness of eel weirs in the swamp and provide for the flow of water. A post office was open by 1909 and a drainage board set up, which was extended in 1915, by which time the station was handling traffic for

Waikeria Prison There are eighteen adult prisons in New Zealand. Three prisons house female offenders, one each in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The remaining fifteen house male offenders; ten in the North Island and five in the South Island. In add ...

. In 1908 the station was being considered as a junction for a line to Kawhia and

Raglan Raglan may refer to: People *FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855), British Army officer, commander of British troops during the Crimean War *Raglan (surname) *Raglan Squire (1912–2004), British architect Places Australia *Count ...

and by 1920 as a junction on a railway from Kawhia to

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

. On 14 September 1913 the name of the station was changed from Kawa to Te Kawa. In 1917 a telephone was reported as connected, though another report put the date as 1929. By 1980 there was a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

for 123 wagons. The line to the south of Te Kawa falls on a 1 in 183 gradient. There was a private siding for grain at the station in the 1970s and 80s. The station site was sold in 2000.

References

External links

1934 photo (top left) in The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 2 (1 May).Video of steam train passing through Te Kawa in 2008
Defunct railway stations in New Zealand Ōtorohanga District Rail transport in Waikato Buildings and structures in Waikato {{NewZealand-railstation-stub