Turangarere was a

flag station 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 ...

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 ...

line, in the

Ruapehu District Ruapehu District is a territorial authority in the centre of New Zealand's North Island. It has an area of 6,734 square kilometers and the district's population in was . Features The district is landlocked, and contains the western half of the ...

of New Zealand, in the

Hautapu River Hautapu is a township in the Waipa District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, located just north of Cambridge across State Highway 1. The area was identified as the Hautapu Parish on a militia farm map published in 1864 during ...

valley. Turangarere is part way up a 1 in 70

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gradi ...

from Mataroa to Hīhītahi, so that it is above Ngaurukehu and below Hīhītahi. The station was on a

horseshoe curve A horseshoe curve is a class of climbing curve in a roadbed which reverses turn direction (inflection) twice on either side of a single tight curve that varies through an angle of about 180 degrees or more. Such curves are more commonly found ...

, formed to avoid an even steeper gradient, by adding about to the route. Only a single track now remains through the former station site.

Name

In 1909 it was proposed to name the crossing siding Hautapu. However, it became Gardner & Son's Siding, usually abbreviated to Gardners Siding, which was changed to Turangaarere on 25 October 1928. The Geographical Board recognised a change from Tarangarere to Turangaarere in 1929. Hīhītahi, the next settlement up the line, had its name changed from Turangaarere in 1910.

History

The line from Mataroa to Turangarere was completed and equipped with a telegraph line by the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

in 1906. The line to the tunnel entrance to the south was in place by August 1906. It was transferred to NZR on 1 July 1908. Railway houses were added in 1920.

Bridge

Turangarere Bridge has five spans to cross the Hautapu. It was built under a

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

contract by 1899. All the timber other than the maire blocks had to be brought from Taihape. The river was diverted in 1905 to avoid the need for a further two bridges.

Gardner's sawmill

In 1905 Gardner and Sons had cutting-rights over a considerable area of kahikatea, rimu, matai, and totara. Initially the timber was mainly for railway construction, as the roads were too poor to take it to the then railhead at Taihape, then the terminus of the railway. The mill was powered by a steam engine. Gardner's applied for a private siding here in 1906 and had a 5-year agreement by 1 December 1908. The settlement was large enough to support a school and a public hall. The mill closed when the

bush Bush commonly refers to: * Shrub, a small or medium woody plant Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to: People * Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name **Bush family, a prominent American family that includes: *** ...

around it had been felled. At that time, in 1927, it employed 20.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Photos –
bridge in 1962

Google street view of Northern Explorer southbound train at Turangare in 2019
Railway stations in New Zealand Rail transport in Manawatū-Whanganui Buildings and structures in Manawatū-Whanganui Railway stations closed in 1966 Railway stations opened in 1906 Rangitikei District Railway stations in New Zealand opened in the 1900s Railway stations in New Zealand closed in the 20th century