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The Waikaka Branch was a branch line railway that ran through agricultural and gold-mining country in Southland, New Zealand. It was constructed in 1907 and 1908, and operated until 1962.
[edit] Construction
The Waikaka Branch was the last of the minor branches of northern Southland to be authorised. Poor transportation access was causing farm values to depreciate while wagoning costs were prohibitive, and settlers petitioned the government for a railway line to improve their economic prospects. A company was established by local residents to advance half the construction costs to the government, and this led to authorisation to build the line being granted in 1905. When the promised money eventuated, construction of the line commenced on 18 April 1907. It left the Dunedin-Invercargill portion of the Main South Line near Gore at a locality called McNab. Locals under supervision rather than contractors or engineers built the line twenty-one kilometres up a valley to the settlement of Waikaka, and it was completed in late 1908. On 26 November 1908, the line was handed over to the Railways Department and the official opening was held the following day.
[edit] Stations
The following stations were on the Waikaka Branch (in brackets is the distance from the junction in McNab):
- Howe (3 km)
- Willowbank (7 km)
- Maitland (12 km)
- Fleming (15 km)
- Pullar (17 km)
- Waikaka (21 km)
[edit] Operation
The branch was a typical New Zealand rural branch servicing farms. No towns or major industries existed at any point along the line. Branches such as this were useful to open up internal New Zealand to commercial farming, and the Waikaka Branch would have provided local farmers with invaluable access to markets before the development of modern road transportation. A daily service carrying both passengers and freight, known as a mixed train, operated to Gore and return. On 9 February 1931, the passenger service was cancelled and the line's locomotive depot closed in an attempt to improve the branch's finances as it had been losing money for a few years. These measures temporarily improved its prospects, but by 1950, although revenue had doubled, so had expenses. Better road access and improvements in road transportation meant that the use of the railway by farmers decreased - by 1950, the train ran only thrice weekly, and soon became a twice weekly service.
One would have expected that the line would have closed at some point in the late 1940s or early 1950s, but due to the lack of bridges or tunnels, it was ideal for carrying large, heavy items for the construction of the Roxburgh Dam. This traffic sustained the line into the 1960s, but upon completion of the dam, there was not sufficient traffic to justify the branch's continued existence and it was closed on 9 September 1962.
Some trivia associated with the operation of the line stems from the fact it ran up a valley parallel with the Pomahaka Valley that was utilised by the Tapanui Branch - locomotive crews working in one of the valleys claimed that they could sometimes spot smoke from an engine in the other valley.
[edit] The branch today
Traces of the branch line's existence remain evident today. In Willowbank, a preserved windmill, wooden water tank, and Historic Places plaque can be found at the site of the former yard. Yards and loading chutes can be found preserved in Fleming. The former railbed is well defined through the countryside for some of its length, and structures of obvious railway origin can be found in Waikaka, such as former New Zealand Railways Department housing. It should be noted, however, that as time progresses and areas change, evidence of closed branch lines diminishes and what was once readily apparent to the keen observer may now be harder to detect or wholly destroyed.
[edit] External link
[edit] References
- Churchman, Geoffrey B., and Hurst, Tony; The Railways Of New Zealand: A Journey Through History, HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand), 1991 reprint
- Leitch, David, and Scott, Brian; Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways, Grantham House, 1998 revised edition
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