Waiteti (sometimes named Waititi) 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 ...

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 ...

railway (NIMT) in

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 ...

, built in 1939 to relieve congestion along a single track

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

, where the line rises steeply from Te Kuiti on 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 ...

for , including curves of to

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

. It was from

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 me ...

. From its opening it was under central control from Te Kuiti

signalbox On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetabl ...

. The loop could hold 100 4-wheeled wagons. Sources vary as to opening and closing dates. On 5 October 1938 a new crossing loop was estimated to cost £8,600. The work was done at the same time the loop at Kopaki was extended, the total cost for both being £19,000. The loop probably opened on 9 December 1939, or possibly 3 December 1939 and closed on 31 March 1987, or, alternatively, as

gazetted A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

, January 1939 to 5 May 1977. The station was clearly visible on a 1983 aerial photo. Electrification came in 1988, which allowed for more powerful locomotives, reducing the need for the passing point on the long gradient. The loop was on the section of line from Te Kuiti to Puketutu, for which the

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had signed a contract on 9 March 1887 and which opened just over 2 years later. Waiteti translates to water dripping from the ground. The station was in the valley of the Waiteti Stream.

References

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External links

* Retrolens aerial photos �
19641983
Railway stations in New Zealand Waitomo District Rail transport in Waikato Buildings and structures in Waikato Railway stations in New Zealand opened in the 1930s Railway stations closed in 1987